Banipal 63 – The 100 Best Arabic Novels is a feast of literary fiction, poetry, essays, book reviews and paintings – and the first pages in full colour. With the huge increase in Arabic novel-writing we asked 100 Arab authors, critics, academics, and a few translators, for nominations to find the 100 best Arabic novels in the 100 years to today. They are listed with brief synopses and biographies of their authors, who include new generations of writers such as Ahmed Saadawi, Ali Bader, Rabee Jaber, Alawiya Sobh, Khaled Khalifa, Saud Alsanousi, Mohammed Hasan Alwan, Hoda Barakat, Raja Alem and others.
Egyptian poet and artist Ahmed Morsi, whose impressive painting, “The Fish Eye”, graces the front cover, is celebrated with vivid paintings and poems. The issue opens, however, with a special feature in which the tragic life of Iraqi writer and academic Hayat Sharara is painfully redrawn through her compelling posthumously published compelling novel "When the Days Grow Dark". Plus works by three further authors from Egypt – Mekkawi Said, Azza Rashad and Girgis Shukry.