The son of a Tunisian Jewish family, Yetiv attempts to preserve some of the wisdom contained in a tradition that may be dying out. Each proverb is presented in transliterated Arabic, with both a literal English translation and an alternative translation that provides a context more familiar to a Western reader.

Peters searches for themes about African self-identity by exploring images of the mask in the poetry of Senghor, the fiction of Achebe, and the drama of Soyinka. His focus is not on the mask as a physical object, but as a concept—a dynamic interplay that involves both the mask and its wearer. Within this interplay, he finds important insights about Africanness as defined by three of the    More >

In the present golden era of Iranian fiction, women writers—contrary to what many in the West perceive—are making a powerful contribution to the literary scene. Reflecting this, A Feast in the Mirror captures the diverse voices of contemporary Iranian women, offering glimpses into their lives and into the labyrinths of Iranian society today.

Moving from the framework of    More >

A Month and a Day & Letters presents an edited version of "A Detention Diary," Ken Saro-Wiwa's own record of his arrest in July 1993 and the story of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People and the struggle against the Nigerian military dictatorship. Saro-Wiwa's criticisms of the corrupt regime eventually led to his execution, along with eight others, in November    More >

Concentrating on issues of power and change, Annie Gagiano's close reading of literary texts by Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head, and Dambudzo Marechera teases out each author's view of how colonialism affected Africa, the contribution of Africans to their own malaise, and above all, the creative, progressive, pragmatic role of many Africans during the colonial and postcolonial periods.

Gagiano    More >

This collection of contemporary love stories by women from Africa and the African Diaspora combines the tentative freshness of budding writers with the confidence of established and award-winning authors.

The anthology debunks preconceived notions about African women as impoverished victims, showing their strength, complexity, and diversity. The stories deal with a range of challenging    More >

This near-definitive study sets a new standard for the kind of meticulous scholarship that Nobel laureate Derek Walcott's poetry deserves.

Another Life, Walcott's masterpiece of autobiography in verse is an ideal point of entry into Walcott's work. The 200 pages of detailed notes and commentary offered in this annotated edition—drawing to a great extent on unpublished    More >

Nizar Kabbani’s poetry has been described as "more powerful than all the Arab regimes put together" (Lebanese Daily Star). Reflecting on his death in 1998, Sulhi Al-Wadi wrote (in Tishreen), "Qabbani is like water, bread, and the sun in every Arab heart and house. In his poetry the harmony of the heart, and in his blood the melody of love". Arabian    More >

"Not sure if he were imagining it or if it were indeed real, he inhaled a familiar scent, rose attar, the fragrance that had consumed him in his sleeping and waking hours.... she was there! He spotted and recognized the black sandals, saw the hands, pale and lovely, the black glass bangles catching the light of the sun like flames leaping out in the darkness."—Excerpt    More >

Bored housewives, kept in seclusion, smuggling in Harlequin romances. Modish young men transformed into Islamic militants in beards and white robes. A baker unwittingly caught in a web of intrigue, an imam whose faith is tested by urban corruption, a lonely divorcee accused of prostitution—all take part in Merzak Allouache's compelling novel of a society on the brink of    More >

This exhaustive bibliography includes creative works by Dutch-, English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking women writers from the Caribbean. The entries are grouped by language region, and within region by genre. There is also an extensive author index.

The final volume in a trilogy that includes The Flutes of Death and Mother Spring, Birth at Dawn extends to the eighth century the story of the arrival of Islam in Morocco and Algeria. First published in French in 1986.

This work of compelling lyrical unity tells the story of growing up black in the colonial world of Martinique.

Not only does the young hero, José, have to fight the ignorance and poverty of plantation life, but he must also learn to survive the all-pervasive French cultural saturation—to remain true to himself, proud of his race and his family. His ally in this struggle is    More >

Amma Darko is revealed in this important collection as a novelist whose work reflects both compelling story-telling talent and unflinching criticism of what Ghana has become as its people are increasingly enmeshed in the network of global capitalism.

The authors critically situate Darko's work within the context of postindependence Ghanaian and other African writers such as Ayi Kwei    More >

Offering a critical perspective on new fiction from the West Indies, Patteson concentrates on five writers from diverse backgrounds and with differing perspectives and artistic strategies, who nevertheless share a commitment to an imaginative repossession of Caribbean life and consciousness.

The writers discussed are Olive Senior (Jamaica), who combines devices of oral narratives and    More >

A gentle novel about the enduring conflict between young and old, new and traditional, foreign and native.

Badian tells the story of a village family in an African country under French rule. The family's father and the eldest son revere the customs of their ancestors, while the younger children are strongly attracted by European ways and ideas. The daughter, Kany, has fallen in    More >

This is the first book-length analysis of the emerging literature written in Spanish by contemporary Central Americans whose grandparents came from the largely English-speaking islands of the Caribbean. Smart shows how the themes of language, religion, identity, exile, the plantation, mestizaje, and interracial love are explored in this literature to their fullest pan- Caribbean    More >

Solomon Mutswairo is one of southern Africa’s most prominent contemporary writers. Here, he gives us a historical novel about Zimbabwe’s famed nineteenth-century prophet, Chaminuka, a man who sacrificed his life for the cause of peace.

Mutswairo tells a tragic tale about deception and the dislocation caused by the “divide and conquer” strategies    More >

In this witty and ironic reversal of the typical colonial travelogue, Dadié recounts the journey of a bemused African traveler who settles in Rome, continuing his inquiries into the fundamental nature of humankind. Part conqueror, part pilgrim, part worshipper, and part critic, the protagonist compares Roman and African customs, traditions, history, and above all, personalities.    More >

Tutuola, Nigeria’s first novelist to write in English, is one of the most controversial of African authors. His six books have drawn reactions ranging from delirious enthusiasm to amused indifference to undisguised contempt. At any given time, his work might be reviled at home and respected abroad—or vice versa. His writing, however, does not seem much affected by the controversies,    More >

This volume provides a broad and representative selection of critical responses to the work of Ayi Kwei Armah (b. 1939), one of the most provocative and versatile of anglophone West African

The essays gathered here are as various as their subject, dealing with such diverse dimensions of Armah’s writing as narrative technique, symbolism and metaphor, mythology, literary ancestry,    More >

A collection of essays and reviews, both favorable and negative, about the charismatic and popular Igbo poet who, at the age of 35, was killed by the advancing Nigerian army during the war of Biafran secession.

The book begins with a memorial essay by Okigbo’s good friend Chinua Achebe. Other contributors examine the rich imagery that Okigbo drew from nature, history, and    More >

Poet, activist, teacher, and scholar, Dennis Brutus is one of the foremost names in African literature—as a creative force, a cultural influence, and a personality. Exploring Brutus's life and writings, this collection opens with a biographical introduction to his "art and activism," covering his childhood, his university days, his arrest and imprisonment in 1964–1965, his    More >

Derek Walcott, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize for literature, has risen from obscure colonial origins to lay claim to a rich cultural heritage. The progeny of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas come together in his work as they populate his native Caribbean islands; his poetry and plays record their struggles to overcome the ironies of their lives, to establish their authentic "new    More >

Rhys, acclaimed author of Wide Sargasso Sea, Quartet, and other novels treating the alienation of a woman from the Caribbean living in European settings, has been a focus of interest both as a feminist writer and in the context of Caribbean literature. She was honored with the W. H. Smith Award in 1967 and the Council of Great Britain Award for Writers in 1979.    More >

Poet, storyteller, scholar, teacher, and statesman, Léon Gontran Damas, born in French Guiana, was a founding father of the negritude movement. This collection offers a wide range of essays on the life and career of Damas from his schooling at home and later in Martinique, through his creative years in Paris as a student, writer, and member of the French Chambres du Deputés, to his    More >

The struggle for liberation from colonial rule in lusophone Africa, which culminated in the creation of several independent nations, has produced a vigorous body of works that are innovative in both theme and language.

This collection of critical essays, accompanied by more than 30 illustrations and photographs, covers a range of literary forms (both oral and written) and also    More >

Mongo Beti is the most prolific and widely read author from Cameroon, and his writings have called world attention to political corruption in his native country. These essays cover the three distinct periods of Beti’s greatest activity as a writer—the first, which ran from 1953 to 1958; the re-emergence that began in 1974; and the third phase, which Arnold traces to Beti’s brief    More >

Eleven essays by Western and Middle Eastern scholars evaluate the work of Naguib Mahfouz, arguably Egypt’s greatest novelist, and the winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. The first such comprehensive, critical treatment in English, the book considers Mahfouz’s short stories and screenplays, as well as his novels.

The contributors pay particular attention to the    More >

A major study of this important and prolific Trinidadian writer, whose many works have come to speak for Caribbean exiles living in “Mother England.” The collection includes background essays, interviews with Selvon, and critical assessments of his ten novels and collected short stories. An extensive bibliography and notes on the contributors are included.

Selvon has devoted    More >

This collection combines articles by Naipaul himself, reflecting his developing ideas from 1958 through the mid-1970s, with fourteen perceptive essays representing his reception among critics.

Distinguished scholars analyze the plays, poetry, and prose of Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. Introductory essays trace Soyinka’s career and place his work in the general context of African literature; the book also includes a definitive bibliography of his work and a chronology of his publications.

Yusuf Idris is considered by many to be the greatest contemporary short-story writer working in Arabic. The 17 critical essays in this collection—some by critics in the Arab world and others by Western specialists on modern Arabic fiction and drama—are organized in sections devoted to Idris's short stories, novels, and plays. Each section includes studies that adopt a general    More >

Focusing on the interaction of finely portrayed characters from all elements of society, Days of Dust depicts the existential drama of the Six Days War as it was experienced on a personal level. The novel provides a remarkable perspective for comprehending Palestinian uprootedness and a people’s unceasing struggle for a homeland. First published in Arabic in 1969. This edition    More >

Set against the background of post-1967 Lebanon, this novel caused a sensation in the Arab world because of its frank and realistic descriptions of Lebanon’s—and particularly Lebanese women’s—problems.

Tragedy awaits Tamina, who is drawn by the lure of the city to leave her Shi’a Moslem village for the university in Beirut. Injured in a student    More >

Guyana-born poet-novelist Dathorne’s powerful work, set against the background of a revolution, both political and spiritual, is a compelling account of the search for ancestry and legacy. The reader learns about the past, present, and future of the chief protagonists—Dele, the saintly whore; Pietro, the impotent medical practitioner; Ianty, the corrupt politician; and Stephan, who    More >

Although he was a staunch supporter of French colonialism, Paul Hazoumé in his realistic, sweeping narrative captures the customs and traditions—the soul—of Dahomey. This historical novel, set in the first half of the nineteenth century, depicts a proud and powerful nation at a turning point in its long pattern of wars, slave trade, and human sacrifices—practices that,    More >

One of the most important literary voices to emerge from The Gambia for several decades, Sallah writes nostalgically about his African roots. This, his third collection, includes elegant, often melodic poems about love, prayer, fate, homesickness, and the contrasts between different places and cultures.

Seventeen short stories by such well-known writers as Abdullah, Idris, Mahfouz, Taher, Ibrahim, Sharouni, Fahmy, Sibai, and Haqqi.

Though strongly influenced by Western poetry, the work of Muhammad al-Maghut is decidedly Arab in theme. Using a set of metaphors that are new to Arab traditions, the 31 poems in this collection are both personal and political. Common to both his love poems and his works of protest is the sadness that comes from displacement and powerlessness, as well as the will to persevere    More >

Includes The Song of Death, The Sultan's Dilemma, and Not a Thing Out of Place, as well as the title play, an absurdist comedy.

Abdul-Baki’s stories, set in Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, and Jerusalem, explore the themes of young women coming of age, the effects of civil war, and differences between East and West.

This is the first time that the literary works of contemporary Afro-Brazilian women have been compiled presenting a comprehensive vision of what it means to be both black and female in Brazil.

Though the canon of Brazilian literature is rich in Afro-Brazilian female characters, until recently it has included only a handful of Afro-Brazilian women writers, sprinkled across the    More >

Because of, and at times in spite of, the distinct quality of Portuguese colonial policy, an original and vibrant lusophone literature exists today in Africa. Burness introduces the too-little- known work of Angola’s Luandino Viera, Agostinho Neto, Geraldo Bessa Victor, and Mario Antonio, Cape Verde’s Baltasar Lopes, and Mozambique’s Luis Bernardo Honwana.

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The first book in a trilogy that continues with Mother Spring and Birth at Dawn, this naturalistic allegory is about two Arabic-speaking police officers who set out in the Atlas Mountains in search of a revolutionary. Once in this mysterious region, the officers, with their postcolonial, Westernized manners, are challenged by the ferociously suspicious and independent-minded    More >

These translations of 45 Wolof folktales are remarkable for the way they capture the poignancy, humor, and meaning of their original, oral form. Organized according to their thematic patterns, the stories reveal much about the Wolof people’s relationship with their environment, their beliefs about causality, and their social values, morality, and customs. Including a general introduction    More >

"I enjoy playing in the small square between the archway and the takiya [monastery] where the Sufis live. Like all the other children, I admire the mulberry trees in the takiya garden, the only bit of green in the whole neighborhood. Our tender hearts yearn for their dark berries. But it stands like a fortress, this takiya, circled by its garden wall. Its stern gate is broken and always, like    More >

This coming-of-age novel by the accomplished Bahamian writer Ian G. Strachan traces the life of Tree Bodie as he grows up in the Yellow and White House and the nameless streets of Pompey Village, far (though not in distance) from the sanitized world of Santa Maria's luxury hotels.

Against the backdrop of the internal struggles of a Caribbean island nation, Strachan tells the story of Tree's    More >

Veronica Mercier, a sophisticated Caribbean woman teaching and living in Paris, journeys to West Africa in pursuit of her "identity." There, she becomes involved with a prominent political figure—and must find her way among the often misleading guises of ambition, idealism, and violence.

Conveying a mosaic of feelings (from childhood and adolescence in Guadeloupe,    More >

Battersby, the hero of Selvon’s fifth novel, is a West Indian exile in London who encounters both hardships and amusing situations in his search for adequate and reasonably priced shelter. In Housing Lark Selvon explores the plight of the West Indian in the “Mother Country,” and the exiles’ interactions with English women, the British in general, and each other.    More >

Jameel Farran, a Christian Arab, is forced to flee his destroyed Jerusalem in 1948. Teaching at Baghdad University, he falls in love with a beautiful Muslim girl, Sulafa, but their turbulent affair meets almost insurmountable obstacles of tradition and circumstance.

This is a story of multiple conflicts—between Arab and Jew, desert and city, dictatorship and futile liberal    More >

This first collection of al-Hakim’s stories to be published in English includes 24 of the author’s best works written from 1927 to 1966. Some inspired by literature and others by Egyptian social conditions, the stories range from mock-autobiographical to science fiction and folk fantasy to allegory and philosophy.

After many years abroad, Brahim, the author of stories about a detective (alter-ego) named Ali, returns to Morocco with his pregnant Scottish wife and two sons. Soon to join them are his in-laws, complete with golf clubs and nervous expectations about a mysterious land. In a warm, satirical novel about the misunderstanding between two worlds, Chraïbi pokes fun at both the native Morocco of    More >

Ahmed Bangura argues that a deeply ingrained pattern of prejudice toward Islam in European-language writing on Africa has led to serious misreadings of many West African novels.

Extending Edward Said's study of the orientalist tradition in Western scholarship, Bangura traces the origins of contemporary misunderstandings of African Islam to the discourse of colonial literature. Western critics    More >

Antoine’s biography portrays nearly a hundred years of Haiti’s history as it was lived by Price- Mars in his many roles—politician, diplomat, ethnologist, teacher, philosopher, and moral commentator on Haitian events. Includes a preface by Jean F. Brierre.

Issues of racial discrimination, imperialist exploitation, and accuracy of observation have long interested Conrad’s critics. As a European writing about imperialism in exotic lands, Conrad offered a vivid, but subjective account of the confrontations between the cultures and peoples of East and West. Though some in Africa have condemned his novels as racist, the books have been used as    More >

The shocking execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa at the hands of the Nigerian government in 1995 stirred new interest in the many facets of his life—as novelist and short story writer, radio and television personality, publisher and entrepreneur, political and environmental activist. This interdisciplinary collection critically assesses Saro-Wiwa’s exceptional life and work from a range of    More >

Mongo Beti’s imaginative resources have been compared with those of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This sequel to Beti’s Remember Ruben, set during the first year of Cameroonian independence, continues the story of the revolutionary partisan Mor- Zamba after the defeat of the Rubenists by the colonialist-backed African pols.    More >

Hilary Tham's memoirs reveal the many images, cultures, myths, and memories out of which her poetry has emerged. Tham recalls a life of many textures: her Chinese ancestry, her family's life in Malaysia, her early education and conversion to Christianity, her university studies, marriage to a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, and more. Amidst memories of her raffish father and inspired, overworked    More >

A vivid portrait of the lives of the Egyptian poor, particularly in the Nile Delta region, emerges in this collection of 24 short stories. El-Bisatie offers glimpses of the daily struggles and activities of old men, young women, prisoners, war widows, and everyone in between. Masterfully crafted, his stories cultivate in the reader compassion, hatred, understanding, and suspense.    More >

A revealing study of a girl growing to maturity in middle-class Syria and of her family’s struggle to survive in the tumultuous years of 1940–1961 in Damascus. Attar’s work shows a keen eye for the daily scene, a keen ear for conversation, and a tragic sense of history. Reflecting the rapid sociopolitical changes in Syria that exalted some, but crushed others, it marks anew    More >

As a young widow with two boys to raise, Horia El-Gharib struggled to reconcile tradition and change. She dared to take on a man's role in commerce and trade to protect the future of her sons—but now, all is at risk in the midst of the turmoil of the newly independent regime.

Lion Mountain is the unforgettable story of a stubborn old woman, a one-legged Nubian war hero, and a    More >

Albert Memmi published the first anthology of francophone Maghrebian literature, he expressed his unhappy belief that francophone writing would quickly be eclipsed by Arabic. To the contrary, this volume demonstrates that the francophone writing of North Africa remains vibrant and prolific.

Two distinct periods are evident in contemporary Maghrebian letters, producing the anticolonial works    More >

The only child of the last traditional chief of Makawana village, Maiba struggles to hold her people together in the face of the polarizing forces of convention and modernization. Soaba makes palpable the tensions that arise when rapid change confronts a society that has been stable for many centuries. We also follow his unlikely heroine’s journey as she overcomes the legacy of a    More >

Focusing on the ways in which men are produced, represented, and problematized in African literary and other cultural expression, Masculinities in African Literary and Cultural Texts represents a ground-breaking intervention in a field that is largely woman-centered. The book, with its multigenre approach, will serve as a vital and much-needed resource for both scholars and    More >

Through birthright, travel, marriage, and work, Hilary Tham has experienced an extraordinary range of world cultures, all vibrantly reflected in her latest collection of poems.

Tham’s insights and unusual juxtapositions tell of the meetings of strangers, friends, and lovers; the clashes of differing religions and cultures; and the eternal conflict and misunderstanding between men    More >

This collection of important stories by novelist, journalist, teacher, and Palestinian activist Ghassan Kanafani includes the stunning novella Men in the Sun (1962), the basis of the film The Deceived. Also in the volume are “The Land of Sad Oranges” (1958), “‘If You Were a Horse . . .’” (1961), “A Hand in the Grave” (1962),    More >

Edouard Glissant's Monsieur Toussaint tells the tragic story of Toussaint L'Ouverture, the charismatic leader of the revolution—the only successful slave revolt in history—that led to Haiti's independence more than two hundred years ago.

Translated by J. Michael Dash in collaboration with the author, this new edition captures the striking essence of the    More >

It has been more than 25 years since Moses Aloetta became one of the “Lonely Londoners” in the novel of that name. Now—though an avowed Anglophile—he hankers for Trinidad, for sunshine, Carnival, and rum punch. With characteristic irony and delicacy of touch, Sam Selvon tells the story of Moses’s reencounter with his native land.

Susheila    More >

Setting his novel during World War II, Chraïbi opens the door on the protected and well-to- do world of an Arab woman whose role in society is restricted to that of wife and mother. At the urging of her two sons, she seeks knowledge of the larger world with all its political, economic, and social realities. Soon, she begins to develop and express her own opinions about the ongoing World    More >

Beginning with an epilogue set in the present, this novel quickly moves back to the time of the generation after Muhammad—a time when North Africa, the home of the Berber peoples, was overrun by Arab armies. With strong characters and a compelling sense of place, Chraïbi demonstrates how the Berbers tried to maintain their cultural identity in the face of the overwhelmingly rapid and    More >

It is the 26th day of Ramadan in the year 610, and a handsome man named Muhammad is meditating in a cave on Mount Hira. Fear grips him as he tries to sort out the visions and voices washing over him; and terrified that he is possessed, he leaves the cave to return to Mecca. The day that will transform Muhammad’s life—and change the world—has begun.

That day becomes a fluid    More >

Assembled in this volume are the Arabic and English texts of the three long poems that make up Hawi's Bayadir al-ju [The Threshing Floors of Hunger], The Cave, The Genie of the Beach, and Plurals in Singular Form: The Transformations of Lazarus 1962. The translators provide detailed essays that explain each poem and the specific problems encountered    More >

Salti, born in Lebanon in 1966, deals with “unmentionable” aspects of Arab life in native lands, as well as in the West. Influenced by Alifa Rifat, Nawal al-Sa’dawi, Naguib Mahfouz, and Yusuf Idris—both their subjects and their courage—the six stories in this volume highlight the plight of marginalized groups and nonconformists.

Though he writes in English, Salti    More >

Dangaremba's acclaimed first novel tells of the coming-of-age of Tambu and, through her, also offers a profound portrait of African society. In awarding Nervous Conditions the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Africa in 1989, the judges described the book as "a beautiful and sensitive exploration of the plight and struggle of an African people.... A distinguishing feature of this work    More >

This collection of fiction and poetry, written by members of the military forces sent by Castro to help defeat the South Africa-backed regime in Angola, reflects the realities of painful years in Africa. The material is laced together by Burness’ narrative of past and present wars and rebellions.

A collection of forty-two poems that depict the pain and pathos, the political and personal struggles that marked South Africa during apartheid. House is acutely sensitive to the sometimes subtle, sometimes explosive tensions of her homeland—and to the hope that must accompany any movement toward liberation.

Eighteen full-page drawings by Selma Waldman are presented as visual    More >

"Politics and the novel," Ghassan Kanafani once said, "are an indivisible case." Fadl al-Naqib has reflected that Kanafani "wrote the Palestinian story, then he was written by it." His narratives offer entry into the Palestinian experience of the conflict that has anguished the people of the Middle East for more than a century.

In Palestine's Children,    More >

Poems of power, but not stridency, by 12 well-known Palestinian poets, including Darwish, al-Qasim, Tuqan, and al-Jayyusi. Complete dual Arabic/English text, with a bibliography and biographical notes.

This is the volume that first presented Hilary Tham’s unique voice to the world literary scene. Described vividly and compassionately, Tham’s colorful cast of characters includes a Cantonese grandfather who repaired ships under water, but now refuses to go into the sea; a strong-willed grandmother with bound feet but an unbounded mind; and a mother who arranges a marriage between    More >

Seb, the protagonist of this Goan-Indian novel, is a member of the Indian “lost generation” caught between cultures, religions, and epochs. Struggling against the Western-style materialism and spiritual corruption he sees everywhere in the postimperial era, he becomes a teacher at a Gandhian-inspired school in the interior. There, both he and his “slow” students embark    More >

Includes Between War and Peace, Tender Hands, Food for the Millions, Poet on the Moon, and Voyage to Tomorrow.

Includes The Wisdom of Solomon, King Oedipus, Shahrazad, Princess Sunshine, and Angels’ Prayer.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book

Now Available in Paperback!

Al-Hakim’s first novel tells the story of a young patriotic Egyptian artist in 1918-1919 Egypt. For some critics, this remains al-Hakim’s greatest novel, synthesizing Western and Islamic cultural and philosophical systems and treating issues of social justice, changing mores, and religious conflicts. First published in Arabic in 1933.    More >

Oyono’s third novel is the bittersweet, first-person story of Aki Barnabas, a young Cameroonian scholar who seeks to become “someone” by using the rules of the colonial system to his personal advantage.

Failing in his nearly ten-year effort to win a scholarship to Paris, sacrificing his very self in a futile quest for prestige, Barnabas becomes lost at home and    More >

This book challenges the widely held contention that the indebtedness of English literature to other cultures is limited to Greek and Roman influences. Ali demonstrates how deeply the Arabian Nights has penetrated English literature and culture since its publication in English in 1704–1712. His work, including a comprehensive bibliography, is central to any study of the image of the Arab    More >

Salih's shocking and beautiful novel reveals much about the people on each side of a cultural divide. A brilliant Sudanese student takes his mix of anger and obsession with the West to London, where he has affairs with women who are similarly obsessed with the mysterious East. Life, ecstasy, and death share the same moment in time. First published in Arabic in 1969.    More >

Simms explores the methodological and theoretical problems faced by creative writers in the Pacific, perceptively discussing not only the native author’s dilemma in expressing ideas and forms generally unfamiliar to Westerners, but also the problems that foreign critics and general readers face in evaluating works by Pacific authors. He considers, too, how a writer evolves in a culture where    More >

At the beginning of the 1980s, Singapore’s public relied largely on a literary diet of traditional British and North American authors. By 1990, however, books by Singaporeans were rapidly replacing imports on the bestseller lists and in the review columns. Singular Stories exemplifies the range of the new Singaporean prose.

The pieces in this diverse collection explore    More >

Prophetically named for a real war yet to come, Six Days depicts the struggle of a fictional city under siege. Barakat tells the story of shy lovers, friends, increasing fear and anger, and finally the terror of war. The people of Dayr Albahr are confronted with an ultimatum: surrender or be destroyed. They choose to resist, knowing that they face inevitable defeat, but sustained by a    More >

Tawfiq al-Hakim (1898-1987) dedicated much of his long life to a fruitful attempt to advance the fortunes of twentieth century Arabic literature by writing it. This guide to his work provides paths for readers through his multiple literary worlds. Chapters on his personal history, his novels, plays, short stories, and essays, his Islamic feminism, and his theology are enhanced by a discussion of    More >

A detailed study of the literary debate among medieval Arab critics and philosophers about the use of truthfulness and untruthfulness in the poetry of the period. Emphasis on the critical schemes proposed by al-Jurjani and al-Qarta-janni. The book includes extensive notes, a bibliography, an index of personal names, and a useful glossary/index of literary and philosophical terms.    More >

This sequel to the award-winning Nervous Conditions traces Tambu's continuing quest to redefine the personal, political, and historical forces at work in her complex world. 

The dehumanization of the Arabs who emigrated to "Mother France" is the subject of Chraïbi’s second novel, echoing Simple Past. This time, however, the focus is more on the values and customs of the West, whose promises to the Islamic world appear as a facade for violence and exploitation.

The story unfolds in the mind of Yalaan Waldik, an "Arabo"    More >

Idris developed a form of expression new to Arabic literary tradition, deliberately distinguishing between the colloquial Arabic spoken by his characters and the classical form that he used as narrator. This innovation at first raised an outcry among Arab critics, who disparaged his deviation from tradition; eventually, however, his work came to be valued as a purely indigenous product and a stark    More >

Narang describes India as a land that lives simultaneously in several centuries, “accepting much and rejecting nothing.” It is a place of contrasts and contradictions, “where volatile emotions see-saw against a phlegmatic acceptance of the writ of fate.” Her stories, set in northern India—sometimes in the westernized homes of the educated elite, sometimes in the    More >

The Cry of Winnie Mandela is a powerful story that links the lives of four "ordinary" South African women with the life of Winnie Mandela. It is the story of five women who wait for their husbands during the long years of struggle against apartheid.

Though Sahelian culture likely dates back more than five thousand years—encompassing Africa's greatest empires—the Sahel remains little known in the English-speaking world. Redressing this situation, The Desert Shore offers a rich sampling of the contemporary literatures of the region, along with contextualizing chapters by critics from Africa, Europe, and North    More >

This political, and darkly romantic novel centers on Mei Puti, a forty-something" professor of literature, who suffers during the Cultural Revolution because of her heritage as part of the old elite.

Dealing with sexual mutilation, Accad’s lyrical, tragic novel shows woman as prisoner, victim, and target of man’s age-old preoccupation with domination by and fear of women. Set in exploding, agonized Lebanon, the work is Islamic, Christian, modern, and antique in scope. First published in French in 1982.

This new paperback edition includes a preface by the    More >

These seven stories, dramatic and thought-provoking, provide a compelling picture of Korean life in the 1940s–1990s.

Family and community ties, respect for tradition, survival in the face of repeated national disasters and wrenching social upheaval—these are among the themes evoked in the collection. The narratives make palpable the lives and emotions of characters from many    More >

Exploring the negra archetype in literature, this anthology presents the work—both the original Spanish version and the English-language translation—of 15 poets from Colombia, Equador, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Young’s extensive introduction traces the black woman’s image from Hispano-Arabic poetry to the 20th century poetry of South America.    More >

This incisive collection of essays on the legacy of Efua Sutherland, published 11 years after her death, will rekindle an awareness of her life's work as an educator, publisher, artist, and writer. The collection also reflects Sutherland's deep passion for African and Ghanaian culture, as well as theatrical cultures from around the world.

Behrangi offers five children’s stories that are notable for their realism and social significance. In keeping with his desire to combat ignorance and bridge the cultural gap between the rural poor and wealthy city dwellers and land owners, his stories do not shield children from knowledge about the pain and cruelty of life. Rather, they pay homage to the lives of the poor, who despite    More >

The life of a young, ambitious Cairo journalist as seen through the eyes of the two women who love him and the two colleagues who befriend him, only to be betrayed. First published in Arabic. 

Ngoza, in KwaZulu-Natal—South Africa's most turbulent province—is transformed when clan leader Baba Joshua dies and his headstrong daughter tackles the age-old shibboleths held by traditionalists and gangsters alike.

The reluctant heroine of this novel, Zodwa, finds support from unlikely quarters. A disenchanted ex-ANC guerrilla and a dyed-in-the-wool white supremacist join    More >

This anthology presents the voices of a new generation of African poets, drawn from across the continent and representing a wide range of themes, styles, and ideologies. These contemporary voices have been shaped in the realities of postcolonial Africa from the mid-1970s to the present. In contrast to the preceding generation—forged in the years of nationalist movements and    More >

In this fresh look at the troubled, passionate work of an important South African writer and social critic, Balutansky explores Alex La Guma’s five novels in all their dimensions.

Balutansky notes La Guma’s belief that, in order to lead a fulfilling existence, an individual must go beyond introspection and adopt a life that is organized around unity, caring, and sharing.    More >

The first edition of this book, completed in 1970, was hailed as a major contribution to scholarship on the development of Arabic fiction in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this revised and greatly expanded second edition, Matti Moosa has added five entirely new chapters—one on the popular dialogues of Abd Allah Nadim, and four devoted to twentieth century fiction    More >

In this turbulent novel of shame, violence, and hypocritical morality, the adolescent son of a repudiated mother grows up in a hostile, erotic, bourgeois world, where he must fight for his own soul. Using violence against violence, the young hero seeks to realize his better nature by overcoming the powers of hedonism, religious conformity, and tribalism. First published in French in    More >

ForeWord Magazine's Reference Book of the Year, 2007!

Ranging from ancient cultures to the present century, from Africa's rich oral traditions to its contemporary fiction, poetry, and drama, this long-awaited comprehensive anthology reflects the enduring themes of African literature.

The selections, drawn from the length and    More >

These powerful stories were written between 1947, when Pakistan was created, and 1971, when it was fragmented by the creation of Bangladesh as an independent nation. Steeped in an unmistakable Shi’ite ambiance, they also draw freely on memoirs and memories, dreams and visions, Middle Eastern oral traditions, and Hindu and Buddhist mythology.
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Jabra’s highly acclaimed novel is a masterful exploration of the post-1948 Arab world, with its frustrations, yearnings for homeland, and struggle for survival. As his characters interact on a ship sailing from Beirut to Europe, Jabra exposes them to the elements of spiritual and physical displacement. Some survive; others do not.    More >

A woman abandons her newborn baby in a ditch. Soon discovered, the corpse arouses in the local peasants an intense desire to bring the killer to justice—and gives them the excuse to pry into the lives of the entire community. The primary suspects are a group of migrant workers, and the question of their guilt or innocence soon reveals other kinds of truths. The Sinners is an    More >

These twelve stories set in modern Pakistan capture the rich Urdu literary tradition, telling close, personal tales of family relationships, love, spirituality, dreams, and the interactions between members of different races and religions. A discussion of contemporary Urdu literature introduces the volume.

The authors included in the collection are Zamiruddin Ahmad, Khalida Asghar, Masud    More >

Acclaimed in both its English translation and its original Arabic version, the title work in this collection has been made into a film, while a second piece, “A Handful of Dates,” is among the most anthologized of modern short stories.    More >

The Whistling Bird celebrates what were until recently the little-heard voices of women writers from the Caribbean. The anthology includes short stories, poetry, drama, and excerpts from novels—all rich, melodic works written with clarity and conviction.

This unique investigation provides the first major account of the explosion of literary talent that began in Nigeria in 1948 and ended as the civil war was intensifying in 1966. The book is structured around interviews with the men and women who led this generation of profound talent, all of whom attended University College, Ibadan, or its successor, the University of Ibadan. Speculating about    More >

An innocent yet stinging—and always absorbing—account of the lives of two young expatriate girls in Kuwait in the 1960s. Isabel, the red-headed daughter of an American mother and Arab father, befriends Laila, whose family has left the lush, cool mountains of Lebanon in search of a better life in the heat and desert of Kuwait. Abdul-Baki presents the voices of both girls, telling    More >

When Mati Unenesyo left for the University of Fearfong to teach creative writing, his friends and family thought that he had climbed from "the mires of a nobody to the crest of a luminous elite." But in Manthaland, the central African country where this story is set, things are not that simple: Mati finds that his new friendship with a former professor is regarded with suspicion in some    More >

These twenty stories show the broad range of iconoclast, fabulist, realist, satirist, avant- gardist Aziz Nesin (1915-1995), long considered a major voice in contemporary Turkish fiction. Like many Turkish writers, Nesin was born into poverty, saw his work censured, and suffered imprisonment; as these stories demonstrate, however, his voice is very much his own, rich with    More >

Following on his awarding-winning Mating Birds, Lewis Nkosi's second novel is a tour de force. Nkosi takes us from mansions to mountain hideouts, introducing a dazzling array of characters. Switching from comedy to sensitive observation to action, and with double-dealing operatives and political shenanigans, Underground People blends elements of a political thriller in a    More >

Poignant and thought-provoking, this anthology offers a representative selection from the past three decades of works by the best-known women writers in Saudi Arabia. The authors’ stories of their patriarchal society afford rare insight into the traditional and changing roles, relationships, and expectations of modern Saudi women.

The editors provide an introductory essay on    More >

Spanning more than a century, this systematic study brings to the forefront a dazzling array of novels by Arab women writers.

Bouthaina Shaaban’s analysis ranges from the work of Zaynab Fawwaz, published at the end of the nineteenth century, to that of Sahar Khalifah and Najwa Barakat, published at the cusp of the twenty-first. The novels discussed reflect not only    More >

A collection of songs sung by Arab women, compiled by Caspi during field research in the West Bank and Israel. The songs, in English translation, are divided into three sections: bridal songs, lullabies, and lamentations. The work also includes a general introduction and a bibliography.

European colonialists assumed the prerogative to interpret the experiences of their “charges” and to decide the legitimacy of creative expression among Africans. Yoder examines that assumption, frankly discussing the racism and cultural chauvinism of nineteenth-century France, as well as colonial practices and the reactions to them as reflected in West African novels. Using a    More >

The manuscript for this novel, written in 1948, was hidden in a file in London for more than thirty years, until unearthed by Bernth Lindfors. The present edition of the book, its first publication other than a limited facsimile edition in 1982, incorporates minor revisions made by Tutuola during a visit to the United States in 1983, when he corrected obvious errors and restructured several    More >

Poems of home and exile by Fouzi El-Asmar, a Palestinian poet and journalist. Most selections are presented in dual English/Arabic text.

Women’s Voice is a detailed study of Clarice Lispector’s Laços de família, Rosario Castellanos’s Oficio de tinieblas, Marta Lynch’s La señora Ordóñez, and Silvina Bullrich’s Mañana digo basta. In deciding to focus on these, Lindstrom chose, from a wealth of literature, the    More >

This ambitious work presents biographical entries for nearly 500 of the leading Oceanic writers, as well as references to approximately 2,000 authors and 10,000 novels, anthologies, memoirs, cultural studies, and literary journals. It includes an index organized by countries/regions.

From the appearance of Bound to Violence in the late 1960s, Yambo Ouologuem has been one of Africa’s most controversial writers. For some critics, the young Malian signaled an entire new direction for African letters: a fiercely courageous postindependence literature. For others, his novel revealed too much, bringing to light horrors many preferred to ignore. Today Ouologuem is    More >