The Failure of Postcolonial Modernity in Siddhartha Deb’s Light
Anis Shivani finds that Siddhartha Deb's "outright denial of human agency sets him apart from even the most dire modernists."
Book Reviews
Why Isn’t Ghaith Abdul-Ahad a Household Name?
Iason Athanasiadis reviews the Iraqi correspondent's new memoir on Middle East wars and asks questions.
Freedom and Dislocation in Jamal Mahjoub’s Novel, The Fugitives
David Rife reviews the latest fiction from the Sudanese British author of more than a dozen literary and noir novels.
Deniz Goran’s New Novel Contrasts Art and the Gezi Park Protests
A novel about "toxic authoritarianism" and how it has shaped the lives of countless young persons in Turkey, sometimes through exile.
Youssef Rakha Practices Literary Deception in Emissaries
Zein El-Amine reviews the first collection of "original, irreverent" short stories written in English by Egyptian writer Youssef Rahka.
Niki, Prize-Winning Greek Novel, Captures the Country’s Civil War
Nektaria Anastasiadou reviews the newly-translated novel from Christos Chomenidis, which won the Greek National Book Award.
Wounded Tigris: A River Journey Through the Cradle of Civilisation
Nazli Tarzi reviews an adventure travel and climate change story of what humanity stands to lose with the death of a great river.
The Yellow Birds Author Returns With Iraq War/Noir Mystery
Hamilton Cain reviews a police procedural that connects Norfolk, Virginia with the late Iraq War and the streets of Mosul.
How Bethlehem Evolved From Jerusalem’s Sleepy Backwater to a Global Town
Bethlehem native and novelist Karim Kattan reviews the new book by Jacob Norris that tells the 19th century story of the town's evolution.
Radius Recounts a History of Sexual Assault in Tahrir Square
Sally AlHaq reviews the recent book by Yasmin El-Rifae on the history of sexual assault in Tahrir Square and what one group did to fight it.
A Debut Novel, Between Two Moons, is set in “Arabland” Brooklyn
Novelist R.P. Finch reviews the debut novel of Aisha Abdel Gawad, set in the "Arabland" of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
Where Are Yesterday’s Dhufar Revolutionaries Today?
Speaking of Arab revolutions, Tugrul Mende reviews a new book from Stanford looking back at revolutionaries of Dhufar, south Oman.
Rebecca Makkai’s New Novel Makes Us Question What We Know
Deborah Williams reviews the new literary thriller from Rebecca Makkai that makes us question everything we know.
Kafka in Tangier is a Brooding Homage to Metamorphosis
Rula Khateeb Jarallah reviews the news translation of the Mohammed Said Hjiouij novella in which a man is transformed into a monkey.
Hard Work: Kurdish Kolbars or Porters Risk Everything
Clive Bell reviews the latest graphic novel from Mana Neyestani on the hardships of being a Kurdish porter.