This prize, awarded since 1996 is a major award for contemporary Arabic literature.

The award is presented annually on December 11, the birthday of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, by the President of the American University in Cairo in the presence of the Minister of Culture and many other prominent leaders of Egypt’s cultural life.

Exceptionally, and for the first time, the winner of the prize was unable to receive the award in person. Khaled Khalifa was not given permission to leave Syria by the authorities.

On Tuesday November 5th, Lebanese author Jabbour Douaihy received the Young Arab literature award, created in the Spring of 2013 by the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation, and the Arab World Institute, Paris.
Eight titles were shortlisted, by authors Saber Mansouri (“I was born eight times”, Le Seuil), Nabil Naoum (“Amir”, Actes Sud, Sindbad), Ahmed Dich (“Chibani”, Anne Carrière), Salim Bachi (“The last summer of a young man”, Flammarion), Jabbour Douaihy (“Chased away”, Actes Sud, Sindbad), Hayat El Yamani (“Bi-cultural”, Anne Carrière), Charif Majdalani (“The last lord of Marsad”, Le Seuil), Alia Mamdouh …

I first thought of this project in a random conversation with Nadim Tarazi, a friend who owned my favorite bookshop in Beirut in the 1990s, and now runs “La Maison du livre”, association for book professionals. He was visiting Paris where I then lived. It was the winter of 2006. I had been a literary agent specialized in Arabic literature for two years, and was struggling to find independent information on books. This is where the realization of a need for more information on Arab books, as well as for quality standards, stemmed from.

The idea of “Syrian women for human development” SFD, came from the heart of the Revolution, the depth of tragedy and resistance against the oppression of the dictatorship on the one hand and that of religious fundamentalism on the other, when the word became insufficient.

A website dedicated to creating stimulating lists of books, films and music, Listmuse has recently published a list of the best 100 books of all times.

The 260 pages novel details life under the Asad regime, in the period spanning from the early 60’s, to 2005.