Arabic Lit Group Reads for 2020

ByMelanie Magidow

This year in the MENA Lit Group on Goodreads.com we’re planning four group reads from Day 1, to be expanded if interest demands.

Here are our 4 seasons of reading for 2020:

1. Seven Days of Man by Abdel Hakim Qasem(January-March) | Set in an Egyptian village in northern Egypt in the Delta near Tanta, this classic novel tells a coming-of-age tale of a young man trying to find his place in the world.

2. The Quarter by Naguib Mahfouz (April-June) | This manuscript by the late Nobel laureate was discovered last year among his personal papers. With Roger Allen’s translation in English now available, we’ll be among the first to read this Mahfouz work!

3. An Apartment Called Freedom by Ghazi Algosaibi (July-September) | This novel tells the story of four young men from Bahrain living as students in Cairo in the late 50s and early 60s (Nasser’s Egypt). Adapted into a popular MBC TV series in 1995.

4. Travels with a Tangerine by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (October-December) | An engaging memoir of the author’s experiences retracing the travels of Ibn Battuta, the greatest traveller of the pre-mechanical age.

We’ll follow up with more details regarding these selections, and we’re open to suggestions as always.

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