Sixteen novels are in the running for the 2025 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, including works from Bahrain and Mauritania for the first time.
The longlist also features novels from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Iraq and the UAE.
From a novel set in a cemetery in Baghdad that transforms the dead into butterflies, to a housemaid’s perspective of the Beirut port explosion, as well as a fictionalised biography of Al-Ghazali, the works range in subject matter, tackling different aspects of Arab identity and history.
“This year’s longlist is remarkable in its diversity of both theme and literary form,” says Mona Baker, an Egyptian academic and chair of the judging panel. The panel also includes Moroccan academic and critic Said Bengrad, Emirati critic and academic Maryam Al Hashimi, Lebanese researcher and academic Bilal Orfali and Finnish translator Sampsa Peltonen.
“Some novels address women’s struggles to achieve their dreams in a patriarchal society that prevents them from living fulfilled lives," Baker said. "Others offer a nuanced portrait of religious and sectarian worlds, where extremism and dogma contrast with human empathy and understanding.”
The novels include The Weepers by Bahraini author Aqeel Almosawi. The work follows three generations of a family in the Shiite community of Bahrain, exploring nuances of socio-political life and religious rituals.
Algerian author Inaam Bayoud’s Houaria, meanwhile, follows a palm reader who wakes up in a hospital ward with memory loss. What Zeina Saw and What She Didn’t by Lebanese writer Rashid al-Daif explores the trauma of the 2020 Beirut port explosion through the eyes of housemaid named Zeina.
Syrian author Sausan Jamil Hasan’s novel Heiress of the Keys is set in Syria between the mid-20th century until the outbreak of the revolution in 2011. While Songs for the Darkness by Lebanese writer Iman Humaydan follows four generations of women from the Lebanese Dali family, who reside in the village of Kasura in Mount Lebanon.
The Stolen Novel by Egyptian author Hasan Kamal tells the story of a conservative Egyptian woman who re-evaluates her life after discovering her husband’s infidelity. And The Lamplighter by Egyptian writer Ayman Ragab Taher explores the sociopolitical struggles in Egypt between the latter half of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries. Meanwhile, The Women’s Charter by Lebanese writer Haneen Al-Sayegh explores the rural life in her Druze village in Mount Lebanon.
Several of the longlisted novels re-examine key moments in Arab history with a fresh perspective.
Mauritanian novelist Ahmed Fal Al Din reimagines the life of the 12th century scholar Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali in Danshmand. In The French Prisoner, Syrian-Kurdish writer Jan Dost takes cues from the true story of Pierre Amedee Jaubert, envoy of Napoleon Bonaparte to the Shah of Iran and the French leader’s translator during the Egypt campaign. The Andalusian Messiah by Syrian-Palestinian author Taissier Khalaf highlights one of the most brutal moments in Andalusian history, when Muslims were forcibly converted and interrogated by the Inquisition.
Then there are novels that delve into the fantastical and absurd, or explore the nature of perspective.
With The Valley of the Butterflies, Iraqi writer Azher Jirjees examines developments in Baghdad over the past two decades with a novel that straddles the divide between fantasy and reality, tragedy and comedy. Egyptian writer Ahmed Al-Malawany’s Happy Dreams offers a dystopian vision of an unnamed city where residents are forced to sleep. The Prayer of Anxiety by Egyptian writer Mohamed Samir Nada is set in an isolated village, where residents believe they are surrounded by a minefield.
Emirati writer Nadia Najar’s The Touch of Light features a blind narrator who uses special technology to examine the content of photographs. Syrian writer Sumar Shihada’s My Life Has Just Begun tackles themes of friendship and the illusion of love with a novel that takes place over the course of a single day.
“This longlist continues the trend of recent years of exploring the past to comment on the present from multiple perspectives,” says Yasir Suleiman, chair of the prize’s board of trustees and a professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge. “Weaving the personal and generational into narratives that unfold through anxious and troubled times highlights the slow march of social and political change in Arab society.”
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, will reveal the six shortlisted novels on February 19 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt. The winner of the $50,000 prize will be announced on April 24 in Abu Dhabi.
Here are the 16 books in the longlist for International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2025:
- The Weepers by Aqeel Almosawi (Bahrain)
- Houaria by Inaam Bayoud (Algeria)
- What Zeina Saw and What She Didn't by Rashid al-Daif (Lebanon)
- Danshmand by Ahmed Fal Al Din (Mauritania)
- The French Prisoner by Jan Dost (Syria)
- Heiress of the Keys by Sausan Jamil Hasan (Syria)
- Songs for the Darkness by Iman Humaydan (Lebanon)
- The Valley of the Butterflies by Azher Jirjees (Iraq)
- The Stolen Novel by Hasan Kamal (Egypt)
- The Andalusian Messiah by Taissier Khalaf (Syria)
- Happy Dreams by Ahmed Al-Malawany (Egypt)
- The Prayer of Anxiety by Mohamed Samir Nada (Egypt)
- The Touch of Light by Nadia Najar (UAE)
- The Women's Charter by Haneen Al-Sayegh (Lebanon)
- My Life Has Just Begun by Sumar Shihada (Syria)
- The Lamplighter by Ayman Ragab Taher (Egypt)
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Cultural fiesta
What: The Al Burda Festival
When: November 14 (from 10am)
Where: Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi
The Al Burda Festival is a celebration of Islamic art and culture, featuring talks, performances and exhibitions. Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, this one-day event opens with a session on the future of Islamic art. With this in mind, it is followed by a number of workshops and “masterclass” sessions in everything from calligraphy and typography to geometry and the origins of Islamic design. There will also be discussions on subjects including ‘Who is the Audience for Islamic Art?’ and ‘New Markets for Islamic Design.’ A live performance from Kuwaiti guitarist Yousif Yaseen should be one of the highlights of the day.
FIXTURES
Saturday
5.30pm: Shabab Al Ahli v Al Wahda
5.30pm: Khorfakkan v Baniyas
8.15pm: Hatta v Ajman
8.15pm: Sharjah v Al Ain
Sunday
5.30pm: Kalba v Al Jazira
5.30pm: Fujairah v Al Dhafra
8.15pm: Al Nasr v Al Wasl
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
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How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
