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Author: Rana Asfour

Karoline Kamel graduated from the Faculty of Arts and has been working as a journalist since 2007. Her first novel, Victoria, was published by Al-Karama Publishing House in 2022. Her articles have been published in various Arab newspapers, including Al-Shorouk, Al-Jarida (Kuwait), and Mada Masr. She has also published several short stories in Akhbar Al-Adab, Al Doha Magazine, and the London-based newspaper Al Hayat. She currently resides in Cairo. Her two passions are photography and raising cats.

Rana Asfour is the Managing Editor at The Markaz Review, as well as a freelance writer, book critic and translator. Her work has appeared in such publications as Madame Magazine, The Guardian UK and The National/UAE. She blogs at BookFabulous.com and chairs the TMR English-language BookGroup, which meets online the last Sunday of every month. She tweets @bookfabulous.

3 September, 2023 • Karoline Kamel, Rana Asfour

A Day in the Life of a Saturday Market Trawler in Cairo

Karoline Kamel captures the enchantment of Egypt's flea markets where a nostalgic encounter with a Barbie doll fulfilled a childhood longing.

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2 July, 2023 • Mohammed Al-Naas, Rana Asfour

“The Cactus”—new fiction from Mohammed Al Naas

Can a man who loves a woman prove his mettle by taking proper care of a cactus that stings him with its spines?

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4 June, 2023 • Fadi Zaghmout, Rana Asfour

Fiction: An Excerpt from Fadi Zaghmout’s Hope On Earth

In a dystopian world, thanks to AI, people no longer die because they can be upgraded to better and more functional forms.

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29 May, 2023 • Rana Asfour

Cruising the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair

TMR's managing editor, Rana Asfour, checks out one of the world's largest book events looking for literary mana.

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22 May, 2023 • Rana Asfour

Artist At Work: Maya Youssef Finds Home in the Qanun

Rana Asfour talks to Syrian-born and raised qanunist Maya Youssef, who now lives and teaches in the UK.

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2 April, 2023 • Rana Asfour

Did You Say Doha? (Books to Get You Started On Qatar)

Our top picks on what to read from Qatar.

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20 March, 2023 • Rana Asfour

War and the Absurd in Zein El-Amine’s Watermelon Stories

Rana Asfour reviews a collection of stories from writer and educator Zein El-Amine, who was born and raised in Lebanon.

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5 March, 2023 • Rana Asfour

The Markaz Review Interview—Hisham Bustani

Rana Asfour interviews fellow Jordanian writer Hisham Bustani about his stories, writing in Arabic and ideas on history and quantum physics.

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5 February, 2023 • Rana Asfour

Reading Iraq: Our Top 10 List of Iraqi Fiction

A list of must-read Iraqi fiction, from Ahmed Saadawi's "Frankenstein in Baghdad" to Sinan Antoon's "The Book of Collateral Damage."

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30 January, 2023 • Rana Asfour

Editor’s Picks: Magical Realism in Iranian Lit

Rana Asfour has selected four contemporary novels of Iranian literature for this special issue on Iran in TMR Weekly.

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7 November, 2022 • Rana Asfour

Abu Dhabi Shows Noura Ali-Ramahi’s “Allow Me Not to Explain”

Rana Asfour talks to an Emirati about her ideas and development as an artist.

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15 September, 2022 • Ahmed Awny, Rana Asfour

“What Are You Doing in Berlin?”—a short story by Ahmed Awny

Egyptian writer Ahmed Awny divigates between fiction and reality in this decentering short story.

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15 September, 2022 • Maisan Hamdan, Rana Asfour

Phoneless in Filthy Berlin

Maisan Hamdan, a single Palestinian woman, attempts to survive in Berlin without a cell phone.

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22 August, 2022 • Rana Asfour

After Nine Years in Detention, an Iraqi is Finally Granted Asylum

Rana Asfour reviews the third novel from Dutch Iraqi writer Rodaan Al Galidi.

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18 July, 2022 • Mohammed Al-Naas, Rana Asfour

Libyan Stories from the novel “Bread on Uncle Milad’s Table”

The Markaz Review presents Libya's Mohammed al-Naas in these exclusive excerpts translated by Rana Asfour.

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15 July, 2022 • Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi, Rana Asfour

“The Devil’s Waiting List”—a story by Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi

A solitary bachelor, seeking success as a writer, wonders what he has to do in contemporary Cairo to get ahead.

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27 June, 2022 • Rana Asfour

Leaving One’s Country in Mai Al-Nakib’s “An Unlasting Home”

Rana Asfour reviews Mai Al-Nakib's debut novel, in which the protagonist always thought she would leave her country.

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15 June, 2022 • Ahmed Naji, Rana Asfour

“Godshow.com”—a short story by Ahmed Naji

The Egyptian novelist and author of "Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in Prison" finds versions of Islam in the Nevada desert.

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15 June, 2022 • Joumana Haddad, Rana Asfour

Joumana Haddad: “Victim #232”

A preview of the new Arabic novel from the author of "I Killed Scheherazade" and "Superman is an Arab."

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25 April, 2022 • Rana Asfour

Siena and Her Art Soothe a Writer’s Grieving Soul

Rana Asfour reviews Libyan-American author Hisham Matar's memoir of his time in Siena, Italy.

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7 March, 2022 • Rana Asfour

A Miscarriage of Justice in the Case of Mahmood Hussain Mattan

Rana Asfour reviews the Booker Prize-nominated novel by Nadifa Mohamed based on the true story of a wrongly-convicted Somali in 1950s Cardiff.

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14 February, 2022 • Fadi Zaghmout, Rana Asfour

Fadi Zaghmout’s banned-in-Jordan “Laila”: a TMR Valentine

In this excerpt of the banned Jordanian novel "Laila," introduced by Rana Asfour and translated by Hajer Almosleh, readers get a sense of Fadi Zaghmout's prose and purpose.

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15 January, 2022 • Ahmed Naji, Rana Asfour

Taming the Immigrant: Musings of a Writer in Exile

Former prisoner and Egyptian writer in exile Ahmed Naji contemplates what it means to be a "brown writer" in exile in America.

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15 January, 2022 • Rana Asfour

Meditations on The Ungrateful Refugee

Rana Asfour shares her thoughts on the widely-celebrated book from Dina Nayeri, who writes that escaping and becoming a refugee preoccupied her life for more than 20 years.

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10 January, 2022 • Rana Asfour

Temptations of the Imagination: how Jana Elhassan and Samar Yazbek transmogrify the world

Rana Asfour provides an intimate look at two new Arab novels in translation, from Lebanese and Syrian authors.

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29 November, 2021 • Rana Asfour

From Jerusalem to a Kingdom by the Sea

Rana Asfour reviews a new memoir about the legendary Dajani family, charged by a Turkish sultan with watching over King David's Tomb in Jerusalem, but exiled in 1948.

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22 November, 2021 • Rana Asfour

Three Banned Saudi Novels Everyone Should Read

Despite its repressive regimes, Saudi Arabia has produced a number of world-class novelists — several of whom have seen their best work banned. Rana Asfour reviews three in English translation.

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30 May, 2021 • Rana Asfour

The Maps of Our Destruction: Two Novels on Syria

Rana Asfour reviews Faysal Khartash's Roundabout of Death and Zeyn Joukhadar's The Map of Salt and Stars.

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25 April, 2021 • Rana Asfour

Three North African Novels Dance Between Colonial & Postcolonial Worlds

BookFabulous' Rana Asfour delivers capsule reviews of three recent North African novels from Libya and Morocco.

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10 January, 2021 • Rana Asfour

Muhammad Malas, Syria’s Auteur, is the subject of a Film Biography

Rana Asfour reviews a documentary by Nezar Andary on the Syrian auteur filmmaker, Muhammad Malas.

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15 October, 2020 • Rana Asfour

The “Surreal Hell” That Made Tahar Ben Jelloun a Writer

The Punishment is a first-person account from an author who considers writers to be "witnesses of history."

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