Renowned blogger and Your Middle East columnist Marcia Lynx Qualey, aka ‘ArabLit‘, selects her 16 to read this year.

NEW OUT NOW:

Between December’s Beirut Book Fair releases and the Cairo Book Fair’s in January, there’s a small flood of new reads at the turn of each year. A few of the highlights from 2015-2016:

Elias Khoury’s “Ø£ÙÙØ§Ø¯ Ø§ÙØºÙØªÙ- Ø¥Ø³Ù Ù Ø¢Ø¯Ù ” (Children of the Ghetto – My Name is Adam). This is the story of Adam Danoun, a Khoury par excellence, as it’s Adam Danoun’s novel, “stolen” by Khoury, a continuation of the Gate of the Sun. The narrative is knotted around the 1948 Lydda massacre and, according to early reviews, it is told in Khoury’s characteristic, circling style, intertextual with his previous novels, as Sinalcol was, using his fictional worlds — particularly, in this case, Gate of the Sun, to stand on his own shoulders. More details here.

Iman Humaydan’s Ø®Ù Ø³ÙÙ ØºØ±Ø§Ù Ø§Ù Ù Ù Ø§ÙØ¬ÙØ©, (Fifty Grams of Paradise). Originally titled Letters from Istanbul, this novel moves between Istanbul, Damascus, and Beirut. It’s the fourth novel by the award-winning and acclaimed author of Other Lives, B as in Beirut, and Wild Mulberries. It’s currently being translated into English by Michelle Hartman. More here.

Ma’n Abu Taleb’s ÙÙ Ø§ÙÙ Ø¹Ø§Ø±Ù, (All the Battles). This is short-story writer Abu Taleb’s debut novel. Abu Taleb is one of the founders of the online magazine Ma3azef, and his first novel tells the story of a young man with a “promising future in a prestigious global company” who finds himself caught between opposing worlds: “the world of offices, meetings, and money, and the world of the boxing ring.” Abu Taleb’s novel promises a narrative that’s lean, fast, and occasionally treacherous, an echo of the world of boxing. To be published by Kotob Khan Books.

Khaled Khalifa’s «Ø§ÙÙ ÙØª Ø¹Ù Ù Ø´Ø§Ù», (Death is Hard Labor). This novel follows Khallifa’s tremendously successful International Prize for Arabic Ficiton-shortlisted In Praise of Hatred and There Are No Knives in the Kitchens of This City. In Death is Hard Labor, a car makes its way from Syria to al-‘Annabiyah. Inside it is a body to be buried in a home village, two men, and a woman. Outside there’s a war. More here.

SHORT-STORY COLLECTIONS OF 2016:

Ø¹Ø±Ø§Ù +Ù¡Ù Ù (Iraq + 100), ed. Hassan Blasim. This collection of SF short stories is set to appear in 2016 in Arabic and in English translation. The collection brings together work by a variety of Iraqi voices, including established writers like Ali Bader and up-and-coming writers like Muna Fadhil. All of the stories imagines Iraq in the year 2103. From Comma Press.

Book of Khartoum, ed. Raph Cormack and Max Shmookler. This collection has won a “PEN Translates” award, and is scheduled for release by Comma Press in January 2016. Previously uncollected Sudanese short stories from a wide variety of authors. Unfortunately, it’s to appear in English only.

Also: Unscheduled, but perhaps out in 2016 will be Marrakesh Noir, ed. Yassin Adnan and Baghdad Noir, ed. Samuel Shimon, from Akashic Books. These two collections are set to follow on the heels of the successful Beirut Noir, issued in December 2015, ed. Iman Humaydan. Beirut Noir brought together tightly woven, dangerous stories of Beirut from the Arabic, French, and English. More here.