Fiction

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The Lord

Soraya Antonius

In British-ruled Palestine, a charismatic young man named Tareq becomes a figure of mystery and resistance. After leaving school, he travels from village to village as a magician, performing astonishing feats that earn him a devoted following. But beneath his extraordinary reputation lies a growing defiance of British colonial authority. As unrest spreads across Palestine and the 1936 Arab Revolt approaches, Tareq’s influence attracts the attention of Challis, a ruthless British police chief determined to crush the resistance. Decades later, amid the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, an English missionary recalls the young man whose fate became intertwined with the history of a nation. Rich in historical detail and vivid depictions of Palestinian society before the Nakba, The Lord explores resistance, colonial power, and the lives of people caught in the struggle for their homeland.

The Slightest Green

The Slightest Green

When Intisar Jaber receives news that her estranged father is dying, she leaves her life in Chicago behind and returns to Palestine, a land she barely remembers but has never entirely escaped. Her father, Hafez, abandoned her family decades earlier to join the resistance, only to spend the rest of his life imprisoned. Now, standing in her ancestral village, Intisar must confront the complicated legacy he left behind and the unfamiliar feeling of being a stranger in her own homeland. Meanwhile, her grandmother Sundus fights to protect the family home from those seeking to take it away. As the two women navigate grief, fractured family ties, and the enduring struggle to preserve their inheritance, Intisar faces a difficult choice between the life she has built in America and the history calling her back. The Slightest Green is a moving multigenerational novel about Palestinian identity, displacement, and the powerful connection between people and the land they call home.

Salutation Road

Salutation Road

Twenty-three-year-old Sirad Ali feels trapped between the life she has inherited and the future she dreams of. Living in South London, she struggles to support her mother and younger brother while carrying the wound of her father’s abandonment. But one ordinary morning, her commute takes an extraordinary turn: she finds herself transported to an alternate version of Mogadishu, where her family has lived an entirely different life. There, she encounters Ubah, her double—the woman she might have become had her parents never fled Somalia during the civil war. When Ubah later appears in London, the boundaries between their worlds begin to blur. Blending magical realism with an intimate exploration of migration and family, Salutation Road asks a haunting question: How different would we be if our families had made different choices?

Far Away from Here

Far Away from Here

Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, three young Black American Muslims find themselves confronting the losses, choices, and secrets that have shaped their lives. Fatima returns to the city she fled after the murder of her fiancé, reluctantly taking on the care of his dying mother. Tahani, a single mother who has struggled to reconcile her independence with her religious upbringing, longs for a life that leaves room for her own ambitions. Meanwhile, Saif must face his troubled past and the role he played in his cousin’s death. As their lives intertwine once more, all three must reckon with grief, faith, and the possibility of a different future. A tender, thought-provoking novel about community, belonging, and the courage to reclaim your own story.

United States 2025

Honey Hunger

Set in the mountainous countryside of Oman, Honey Hunger follows Azzan, a solitary beekeeper whose devotion to bees and the search for wild honey offers him a refuge from disappointment and personal turmoil. When he encounters Thamna, a shepherd woman with honey-coloured eyes, he becomes captivated by her, opening the possibility of connection in a life marked by loneliness and troubled relationships. As Azzan navigates family expectations, alcohol addiction, and the fragile bonds between people, his work with bees becomes a source of purpose and healing. Yet an unexpected accident threatens to destroy everything he has built, forcing him to confront loss and the uncertainty of starting over. Through vivid descriptions of Oman’s mountains, villages, and delicate ecosystems, Alqasmi creates an intimate portrait of a community whose lives are deeply intertwined with the natural world. The novel explores longing, resilience, and the complicated relationship between humans and their environment, revealing how the pursuit of something as precious as honey can reflect a deeper hunger for meaning and belonging.

Dealing with the Dead

Dealing with the Dead

Alain Mabanckou

In the Congolese coastal city of Pointe-Noire, twenty-two-year-old Liwa Ekimakingaï wakes up in a cemetery, discovering that he has been dead for three days. Dressed forever in a pair of flared purple trousers, he finds himself among the cemetery’s other residents, whose extraordinary stories reveal a world where the boundary between the living and the dead is surprisingly thin. Unable to remember exactly how he died, Liwa sets out to revisit his past and uncover the truth behind his mysterious death. His journey takes him back to his childhood, his beloved grandmother, and the events surrounding his final night. As memories and rumours begin to converge, a darker picture emerges of a society shaped by corruption, political violence, and the pursuit of wealth and power. Blending African spiritual traditions, surreal humour, and social satire, Mabanckou creates a fantastical portrait of contemporary Congolese life. Beneath its playful, ghostly premise, the novel asks who controls the stories of the dead—and whether justice remains possible after life has ended.

Congo, Democratic Republic 2025

The Anniversary

The Anniversary

Can you walk away from your family and never look back? Ten years after cutting all contact with his parents, an unnamed narrator reflects on the childhood and family life he left behind. His father ruled the household through violence, intimidation, and fear, while his mother quietly endured her husband’s control, gradually disappearing into the background of her own life. As the narrator revisits these painful memories, he begins to understand the cost of silence and the complicated ties that bind children to their parents. Both an intimate family portrait and a sharp critique of patriarchal power, The Anniversary asks whether breaking away from those who raised us is an act of betrayal—or a necessary step toward freedom.

The Man of Middling Height

The Man of Middling Height

What if society’s deepest prejudices were based not on gender, but on height? In The Man of Middling Height, Jordanian author Fadi Zaghmout imagines an alternative world divided between two groups: tall people and short people. Height determines social status, personal freedom, romantic possibilities, and the roles individuals are expected to perform. Those who fall outside this rigid binary face exclusion and discrimination. The story follows a short dressmaker whose life changes when she meets Tallan, a man of middling height who occupies an uncomfortable position in a society that recognizes only two categories. As their forbidden romance develops, they must confront the social rules that dictate whom they can love and how they are permitted to live. Other characters challenge these conventions in different ways, revealing the contradictions and injustices underpinning their world. Through speculative fiction and biting social satire, Zaghmout examines how societies construct hierarchies and use arbitrary differences to justify inequality. By transforming familiar debates about gender, sexuality, and power into a story about height, he invites readers to question the assumptions that shape their own understanding of identity and belonging.

We Computers: A Ghazal Novel

We Computers: A Ghazal Novel

Set in the late 1980s, We Computers follows Jon-Perse, a French poet and psychologist who becomes fascinated by the possibilities of computer technology. With the help of his Uzbek translator, Abdulhamid Ismail, he develops a program designed to analyze and generate poetry. Yet the machine’s literary experiments open doors to worlds far beyond its code, weaving together philosophy, history, mysticism, and human longing. Drawing on the Persian poet Hafez, Sufi literature, French surrealism, and Central Asian storytelling, Hamid Ismailov creates an unconventional novel that moves through ideas and narratives like a literary labyrinth. Inspired by the ghazal—a poetic form traditionally associated with love and longing—the book explores the boundaries between human creativity and artificial intelligence, questioning who can claim authorship and whether literature can transcend the limits of its creator. It is a playful, intellectually adventurous meditation on poetry’s ability to connect cultures and centuries.

Uzbekistan 2025

The Underworld

Martha Mullins has always felt like an outsider. Growing up with a glamorous but judgmental mother and a mostly absent father, she finds refuge in the myths of ancient Rome, discovering in the underworld and its gods a world that reflects her own feelings of isolation, desire and longing. As she navigates adolescence, Martha gradually discovers the joys of friendship, intimacy and the freedom of being understood by others. Her circle of friends introduces her to spontaneity, laughter and experiences that challenge her tendency to retreat into her imagination. But when events take a painful turn, Martha must confront the difficulties of growing up and the limits of the worlds she has created to protect herself. Following her intellectual and sexual awakening through school and into adulthood, Laguna’s novel explores loneliness, queer identity, grief and the search for belonging. Blending classical mythology with the emotional realities of contemporary life, The Underworld is a tender portrait of a young woman learning how to inhabit a world in which she can be herself.

Summer at Mount Asama

Summer at Mount Asama

Masashi Matsuie

Set in Japan in the summer of 1982, Summer at Mount Asama follows Tōru Sakanishi, a recent university graduate who joins a prestigious architectural practice in Tokyo. Founded by Shunsuke Murai, a distinguished architect and former student of Frank Lloyd Wright, the firm is known for its thoughtful designs and quiet devotion to craftsmanship. When the team relocates to a mountain retreat near Mount Asama, they begin work on a competition to design the National Library of Modern Literature. As Tōru observes the creative process and the relationships among his colleagues, he encounters four remarkable women whose presence gradually transforms his understanding of love, ambition and adulthood. The tranquil mountain setting, with its changing light and natural beauty, offers a counterpoint to the professional rivalries and personal uncertainties unfolding around him. Through its subtle portrayal of architecture, memory and human relationships, Matsuie’s novel explores how places shape our lives and how the smallest encounters can influence the course of a future.

Soyangri Book Kitchen

Soyangri Book Kitchen

After leaving behind the pressures of city life in Seoul, Yoojin unexpectedly opens the Book Kitchen in Soyangri, a peaceful village in the South Korean countryside. Part bookshop, part café and part guesthouse, this welcoming retreat offers visitors a place to rest, enjoy homemade food and rediscover the comfort of books. Over the course of a year, as the seasons change, people arrive at the Book Kitchen during difficult turning points in their lives. Among them are a singer struggling with an identity crisis, a promising lawyer facing a troubling medical diagnosis, and a young musical director whose dreams have been diminished by repeated failures. Through quiet conversations, shared meals and the stories found on the shelves, each visitor begins to reconsider their circumstances and imagine new possibilities. With its gentle atmosphere and interconnected characters, the novel celebrates the restorative power of literature, the kindness of strangers and the importance of finding a place where one can pause, reflect and begin again.

South Korea 2025

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