Must Read Fiction by Arab American AuthorsLike this list

30 items

• My Friends

  a Novel

  Matar, Hisham, 1970-

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  Attending the University of Edinburgh, Benghazi transplant Khaled forms a powerful friendship with the author whose short story changed his life, forcing him, as the Arab Spring erupts, to confront agonizing tensions between revolution and safety,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Dream Hotel

  a Novel

  Lalami, Laila, 1968-

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  Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA's algorithm has determined…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Skin and Its Girl

  a Novel

  Cypher, Sarah,

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  Faced with a difficult decision, Betty, a young, queer Palestinian American woman finds answers in partially translated notebooks that reveal her late Aunt Nuha's complex life and struggle with her own sexuality, which she hid from the family, along…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Between Two Moons

  a Novel

  Abdel Gawad, Aisha,

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  It’s the holy month of Ramadan, and twin sisters Amira and Lina are about to graduate high school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. On the precipice of adulthood, they plan to embark on a summer of teenage revelry, trying on new identities and testing the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Watch Us Dance

  a Novel

  Slimani, Leïla, 1981-

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  In 1960s Morocco, biracial siblings: Aicha, who aspires to become a doctor and spends most of her time studying, and Selim, who falls in with the American and European hippies doing drugs and practicing free love -- soon find the ideals of their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Occasional Virgin

  Shaykh, Ḥanān,

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  Successful in their careers but unlucky in love, two Beirut friends, one Christian, one Muslim, share a sunny Italian Riviera vacation marked by their struggles between the worlds they were born into and the worlds they created for themselves.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Palace Walk

  Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, 1911-2006

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  The first book of the Cairo Trilogy recreates turn-of-the-century Cairo, with characters who are simultaneously disciplined and sensual.

• What Strange Paradise

  a Novel

  El Akkad, Omar, 1982-

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  Looking at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child, this dramatic story follows Vanna who comes to the rescue of a 9-year-old Syrian boy who has washed up on the shores of her small island and is determined to do whatever it takes to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mother of Strangers

  a Novel

  Amiry, Suad,

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  Based on a true story, this novel follows the lives of a gifted 15-year-old mechanic and the 13-year-old peasant girl he hopes to marry against the backdrop of the indiscriminate bombing of Jaffa and the displacements of Palestinian families, in…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• You Exist Too Much

  a Novel

  Arafat, Zaina,

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  Told in vignettes that occur in American and Middle East settings, a debut novel follows the experiences of a young Palestinian-American who is marginalized for her sexual orientation before the traumas of her past drive her toward self-destructive…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Belladonna

  a Novel

  Salam, Anbara,

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  Relocating from her Connecticut Catholic school to a prestigious Italian art college in 1957, Bridget reinvents her identity to avoid discrimination over her Egyptian heritage before discovering that her best friend and secret crush is hiding a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Republic of False Truths

  Aswānī, ʻAlāʼ, 1957-

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  Cairo, 2011. After decades under a repressive regime, tensions are rising in the city streets. No one is out of reach of the revolution. There is General Alwany, a high-ranking member of the government's security agency, a pious man who loves his…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Frightened Ones

  a Novel

  Wannūs, Dīmā, 1982-

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  Suleima and Nassim meet in the reception of their therapist's practice in Damascus. Some months into their relationship, before fleeing Syria for Germany and leaving her behind, he gives her a manuscript whose protagonist's life bears discomforting…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Beauty of Your Face

  a Novel

  Mustafah, Sahar,

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  Enduring the harrowing minutes of a shooting attack on her school by a radicalized assailant, a school principal and daughter of Palestinian immigrants experiences flashbacks about the bigotry she faced as a child and the disappearance of an older…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Map of Home

  a Novel

  Jarrar, Randa

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  Nidali, the rebellious daughter of an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, narrates her story from her childhood in Kuwait, her early teenage years in Egypt (to where she and her family fled the 1990 Iraqi invasion), to her family's last…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Hakawati

  Alameddine, Rabih

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  Returning to Beirut after many years in America in anticipation of his father's coming death, Osama al-Kharrat finds a turbulent, war-torn city far different than that he remembers but takes solace in the entertaining stories of his hakawati…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Alligator

  Alzayat, Dima

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  The award-winning stories in Dima Alzayat’s collection, Alligator and Other Stories, are luminous and tender, whether dealing with a woman preforming burial rites for her brother in “Ghusl,” or the great-aunt struggling to explain cultural identity…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Amreekiya

  a Novel

  Mahmoud, Lena,

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  After her mother is killed and her father disappears, Isra Shadi, whose parents were Palestinian and white, lives with her aunt and uncle, but when she is encouraged to leave and marry, she chooses a love from her past, as she is caught between two…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Woman Is No Man

  a Novel

  Rum, Etaf,

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  Three generations of Palestinian-American women in contemporary Brooklyn are torn by individual desire, educational ambitions, a devastating tragedy and the strict mores of traditional Arab culture. [Available in other formats]

• The Other Americans

  a Novel

  Lalami, Laila, 1968-

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  The suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant impacts the lives of a diverse cast of characters, including his jazz-composer daughter, an undocumented witness and an Iraqi War veteran. By the award-winning author of The Moor's Account.