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Author: Rana Asfour

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.

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

Ahmed Naji: “Godshow.com”

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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The Markaz Review is a literary arts publication and cultural institution that curates content and programs on the greater Middle East and our communities in diaspora. The Markaz signifies “the center” in Arabic, as well as Persian, Turkish, Hebrew and Urdu.

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