R A Y A | agency for Arabic literature
Starred review by Kirkus, November 2018
Insistent, memorable portrait of the small indignities and large horrors of the civil war in Syria. A native of the Aleppo district, Khalifa—well-known in the Arabic-reading world but new to most American readers and a winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature—here writes of a family both joined and torn apart by death. The paterfamilias knows that his passing is imminent: The first sentence reads, “Two hours before he died, Abdel Latif al-Salim looked his son Bolbol straight in the eye with as much of …
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Insightful and sarcastic, this is the powerful story of a young man diagnosed with leukemia. This debut novel by young Saudi writer Aziz Mohammed tackles modern Arab life.
“Dreams of Maryam Tair” is a debut novel by Moroccan writer Mhani Alaoui that brings readers to a Casablanca of myth and metaphor, of curses, witches, djinns and demons. But it is also a very present-day Casablanca.
This debut novel by Lebanese filmmaker Meedo Taha is a clever and very entertaining detective story set in Beirut, mixing political imbroglio with personal history.
The women of Syria have to fight not only the Regime, or the Islamist rebels; they have to fight the whole of a patriarchal society, including male revolutionaries. Yazbek collects their stories.
The collection “The whisper of stars” will be published by Dar al saqi on Naguib Mahfouz’ birthday, on December 11th.
World translation rights (except English) are free, and managed by RAYA agency on behalf of Dar al saqi, Beirut.
Culture journalist Mohamed Shoair, was in the middle of writing a book on one of Mahfouz’s works.
As Shoair was documenting the publishing history of the novel, he searched through thousands of archives, books, magazines, and newspapers.
On Wednesday October 24th, the exclusively feminine jury of the French Femina award announced the 7 French titles and 5 foreign titles of their third and final selection. The winner will be announced on November 5th.
Samar Yazbek’s novel “La marcheuse” (The blue pen) tackles Syria’s chemical warfare, and more generally, the massive destruction of war, through the eyes of a woman-child.
Published by Midwest Book Review, October 2018
Farid Abou Char arrives in Beirut on a hot summer morning with his manuscript, looking for a publisher. He is turned down by all of them; nobody reads anymore, he is told. Instead, he accepts a job as a proofreader at the famous old print house Karam Bros., allegedly established in 1908. Disappointed by the menial tasks of checking catalogs and ad copy, Farid secretly hopes that his book will eventually be published.
Published by Booklist, October 2018
“Farid Abu Shaar, a young man earnestly convinced of his own (unproven) literary genius, seeks a publisher for his red-notebook manuscript, The Book to Come. His publication attempts with Beirut’s publishing houses prove futile: “No one reads,” one publisher insists. Although his Karam Brothers Press visit doesn’t lead to publication, he begrudgingly accepts a job as Arabic-language proofreader.
