I’ll Take the Fire is a deeply personal and illuminating work of non-fiction by Leïla Slimani, the Franco-Moroccan author best known for her Booker International-longlisted novel Lullaby. In this essay collection, Slimani turns her sharp, unflinching gaze toward Morocco — its contradictions, its beauty, and the fault lines running through…
A Love Story Written in Ink and MemoryMarjan Kamali’s The Stationery Shop of Tehran is a richly layered novel that weaves together romance, history, and the ache of lives interrupted. Set against the turbulent backdrop of 1950s Tehran — particularly the politically charged events surrounding the 1953 coup — the…
Zoulfa Katouh, the Syrian-Canadian author who captured hearts with As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow, returns with another emotionally resonant story rooted in displacement, identity, and the quiet endurance of hope. The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue continues Katouh’s exploration of what it means to carry a homeland within…
Nadia Hashimi’s When the Moon Is Low is a deeply moving novel that traces the harrowing journey of an Afghan family forced to flee their homeland in search of safety and a better life. Following Fereiba, a widow navigating the treacherous refugee routes of Europe with her children, the story…
Nadia Hashimi’s debut novel is a sweeping, emotionally resonant story that weaves together two timelines and two women separated by a century, yet bound by the same desperate longing for freedom. Set in Afghanistan, the novel follows Rahima, a young girl in contemporary Kabul who is dressed as a boy…
A Curse on Dostoevsky by Atiq Rahimi is a haunting and intellectually daring novel that positions Afghan literature in conversation with one of the great traditions of Western fiction. Originally written in French and translated into English by Julia Older, the novel follows Rassoul, a young Afghan student of Russian…
Atiq Rahimi’s Earth and Ashes is a devastating and quietly magnificent novella that distills the tragedy of war into its most intimate and unbearable form. Originally written in Dari and later translated into English, this slender yet profoundly powerful work follows an old man, Dastaguir, and his young grandson as…
Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone, winner of the Prix Goncourt in 2008, is a devastating and quietly radical work of fiction — spare in form yet enormous in emotional weight. Originally written in French by the Afghan-born author, the novel unfolds almost entirely in a single room, where a woman…
Atiq Rahimi’s A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear is a slender, devastating book that carries the weight of an entire nation within its spare pages. Set in Kabul on the trembling eve of the Soviet invasion in 1979, the novella follows Farhad, a young student who is beaten senseless…
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a debut novel of remarkable emotional force. Set against the devastating backdrop of the Syrian Revolution.
