Book Reviews

Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew by Avi Shlaim—a Review

Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew by Avi Shlaim—a Review

Selma Dabbagh reviews Avi Shlaim's memoir about his coming-of-age as an Iraqi Jew, living as a minority in...

JULY 19, 2024 • By Selma Dabbagh
Plenty of Marjanes & Leilas: Collective Strategies of the Women’s Protest in Iran

Plenty of Marjanes & Leilas: Collective Strategies of the Women’s Protest in Iran

Marjane Satrapi's edited anthology "Woman, Life, Freedom" shows that the story of the movement cannot be told with...

JULY 5, 2024 • By Katie Logan
Upheavals of Beauty and Oppression in The Oud Player of Cairo

Upheavals of Beauty and Oppression in The Oud Player of Cairo

Jasmin Attia's novel vividly portrays Egypt and Cairo by beautifully conjuring music and sound through descriptive prose.

JUNE 28, 2024 • By Tala Jarjour
Life Along Istanbul’s Byzantine Walls, a Review

Life Along Istanbul’s Byzantine Walls, a Review

Arie Amaya-Akkermans on a book that reviews not only Turkey’s social and political deterioration over the last decade,...

JUNE 28, 2024 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
The Battle for Climate Justice vs. Environmental Orientalism

The Battle for Climate Justice vs. Environmental Orientalism

Little-reported green colonialism is occurring in the sun-rich but water-deprived MENA region, writes Richard Lim in this review.

JUNE 21, 2024 • By Richard Lim
Is Amin Maalouf’s Latest Novel, On the Isle of Antioch, a Parody?

Is Amin Maalouf’s Latest Novel, On the Isle of Antioch, a Parody?

Farah-Silvana Kanan questions whether, in this novel, the Franco-Lebanese master is at the height of his powers, or...

JUNE 14, 2024 • By Farah-Silvana Kanaan
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud —A Review

This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud —A Review

An entire family is preoccupied with its history and questions of national identity, confounded by France’s rejection of...

MAY 31, 2024 • By Katherine A. Powers
My Brother, My Land: A Story from Palestine

My Brother, My Land: A Story from Palestine

Saleem Haddad reviews the Sawalha family story that offers hope in resilience, resistance, and survival against all odds.

MAY 3, 2024 • By Saleem Haddad
Forgotten & Silenced Histories in Moroccan Other-Archives

Forgotten & Silenced Histories in Moroccan Other-Archives

Language, gender, class, race, and geography shape citizenship in Morocco today, argues Brahim El Guabli in his latest...

MAY 3, 2024 • By Natalie Bernstien
Palestinian Culture, Under Assault, Celebrated in New Cookbook

Palestinian Culture, Under Assault, Celebrated in New Cookbook

Fadi Kattan's Palestinian cookbook is a memoir of personal and familial memories, intriguing facts, and emotions, writes Mischa...

MAY 3, 2024 • By Mischa Geracoulis
Man Is a Cause: Wisam Rafeedie & the Palestinian Revolutionary Novel

Man Is a Cause: Wisam Rafeedie & the Palestinian Revolutionary Novel

A classic prison novel by Wisam Rafeedie recounts the revolutionary fervor of Palestinian political prisoners.

APRIL 19, 2024 • By Rebecca Ruth Gould
Feurat Alani: Paris, Fallujah and Recovered Memory

Feurat Alani: Paris, Fallujah and Recovered Memory

Feurat Alani, a French novelist of Iraqi descent, succeeds in capturing the connections between two disparate cultural spheres.

APRIL 1, 2024 • By Nada Ghosn
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