{"title":"Novels","description":"It may be the relative youngster on the literary scene, but the novel is the king of reads. Here’s our selection of fictive treats from the UK and across the world.","products":[{"product_id":"storm","title":"Storm","description":"\u003cp\u003eJosephine is already haunted. At university in Aberystwyth, she is grateful to be away from home, and further everyday from the past. When she kisses Glynn on a night out, it could be the start of a love story. Awkward, earnest and polite, he isn’t like the other people she knows. But the town is in the midst of a violent storm and strange things keep happening. Josephine wishes it would all go away. But the past is intent on coming for her.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Seren","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":54759769637249,"sku":"9781911752059","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/files\/jpg_rgb_1500h_82d1ab3d-a4d5-4361-b13b-dc8a3c330da6.jpg?v=1758105501"},{"product_id":"dressing-up","title":"Dressing Up","description":"In Daphne Glazer's new collection of short stories, moments of revelation occur in naughty knickers shops, mammography clinics, tattooists' parlours, strip joints and prisons\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Iron Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040820552,"sku":"9780906228517","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/290_2_06082003_093830.jpeg?v=1752236617"},{"product_id":"iron-women","title":"Iron Women","description":"\u003ci\u003eIRON WOMEN\u003c\/i\u003e brings eighteen new stories from eighteen new voices, an often disturbing collection run through with a strong thread of wisdom, optimism, and the power of imagination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe writers are \u003cb\u003eLeland Bardwell, Jaq Bayles, Helen Dunmore, Daphne Glazer, Nicola Griffith, Anne Liddon, Anna McGrail, Devi Maharaj, Jan Maloney, C. Merriman, Liz Minnikin, Patricia Parris, Doreen Piano, Daphne Rock, Elizabeth Raintree, Sandi Russell, J.A. Tate\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eWendy Wallace\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Iron Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040820664,"sku":"9780906228340","price":4.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/291_2_06082003_101408.jpeg?v=1752236457"},{"product_id":"biting-back","title":"Biting Back","description":"From barbers with built-up soles via cross-dressers, illicit affairs, orang-utans, crime in the city, homelessness, peeping toms and relationships of all kinds, the leading northern writers in this book cut across genres, and share a love of language and the telling of stories.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Iron Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040821816,"sku":"9780906228760","price":6.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/288_2_06082003_092726.jpeg?v=1752236786"},{"product_id":"the-little-book-of-the-big-girls","title":"The Little Book of the Big Girls","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis work is a loose cannon in the canon of liberal opinion. 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Her graphic reports have been widely reproduced in books and journals, and on the postcards, calendars and t-shirts. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Iron Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53675024712065,"sku":"9780906228470","price":3.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/296_2_06082003_092521.jpeg?v=1752236414"},{"product_id":"uncle-freddie-and-the-prince-of-wales","title":"Uncle Freddie and The Prince of Wales","description":"A new collection of short stories from the acclaimed South Shields writer Alex Ferguson, again focusing on the author's part-real part-mythical Uncle Freddie, and again located in the Jarrow of the 1940s where the author grew up. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFerguson's writing is a unique amalgam of the starkly real – the terrible poverty of wartime Tyneside, and the surreally imaginative – meeting such famous characters as the Prince of Wales or Joe Stalin upstairs on a no.38 bus en route to Hebburn. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIron Press published Ferguson's story collection \u003ci\u003eThe Pineapple King of Jarrow\u003c\/i\u003e in 2004, which rapidly sold out. That work was dramatised by the award-winning BBC Radio Four producer Melanie Harris, who is again planning to dramatise the new collection, this time for the stage with her own successful indie production company CrossLab Productions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlex Ferguson\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Jarrow and lives in South Shields, Tyneside. 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They are collected in book form for the first time and bring together a dozen tales inspired, as the author herself puts it “by the consummate experts on the darker side of experience.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNovelist Wendy Robertson spent three years working with female prison inmates, and though the results may be dark on one level, on other levels they reflect the author’s take on the recoverability of the human spirit, plus the qualities of stoicism, wit and irony.  From plunging cat burglars, hallucinating old ladies, gender bender confessions, and women seeking fleshpot escapes, these short stories expand Robertson’s already considerable reputation. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbout the author: Since the early 1990s, the Co. Durham-based Wendy Robertson has become one of the country’s best selling authors, with more than 20 novels to her name. Her latest book \u003ci\u003eThe Lavender House\u003c\/i\u003e (2007) is due its paperback release from Headline September 2008.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Iron Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040824516,"sku":"9780955245060","price":8.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_b92f3785-6284-4814-8ec2-28afe770d715.jpeg?v=1752237111"},{"product_id":"chameleon","title":"Chameleon","description":"\u003ci\u003eChameleon\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of twelve stories from the winner of the 2009 Mslexia International Short Story Competition, which annually attracts thousands of entries. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the tradition of fairytales, the stories sharply observe the human condition, good and bad, villainous and heroic, with a satisfying twist in each tale. \u003ci\u003eChameleon\u003c\/i\u003e includes tales about the vivid intensity of a child’s imagination, the confusion of adolescent love, and the darker side of human nature. Domestic familiarity is made colourful in stories both imaginative and comic. This is an endearing, emotionally wide-ranging collection.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBeda Higgins\u003c\/b\u003e writes poetry and prose and is published in various anthologies and collections. In 2004 she received a Northern Promise Award for her first novel, and her second novel was one of five shortlisted in the National Lit. Idol Competition. In 2010 she received a Time to Write Award to complete her third novel. She works part-time as a Practice Nurse and has received two Queen’s Nursing Institute Awards to fund studies to consider writing as a therapeutic tool. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne and is married with three children.","brand":"Iron Press","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040824604,"sku":"9780956572509","price":8.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/chameleon-for_website.jpg?v=1752237110"},{"product_id":"mordechais-moustache-his-wifes-cat","title":"Mordechai's Moustache \u0026 His Wife's Cat","description":"\u003cb\u003eMahmoud Shukair’s\u003c\/b\u003e first major publication in English translation enthralls, surprises and shocks as one of the world’s most original of storytellers excels in exposing the surreal moments in the ordinary and the mundane, the limits of human frustration and patience, and the intricacies of tiny daily obsessive practices. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrimming with humour that ranges from the funny and the farcical, to satire and black comedy, with a painter’s eye for colour and detail, Shukair’s stories present a unique commentary on the power of the human spirit to see beyond the particular.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe collection includes the author’s two fascinating autobiographical commentaries \u003ci\u003e“Hemingway in Jerusalem”\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003e“My Journey in Writing”\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHere is the brilliantly observed clutter and comedy of everyday lives, the lives of ordinary people pushed up against an iron occupation and fighting for survival with all the comic and moving strategems of the human imagination. Shukair’s gift for absurdist satire is never more telling than in the hilarious title story which turns and pulls the leg (or the moustache) of the occupation, in the classic tradition of Palestinian satire.\u003c\/i\u003e — Judith Kazantzis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTranslated from the Arabic by \u003cb\u003eIssa J. Boullata, Elizabeth Whitehouse, Liz Winslow\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eMahmoud Shukair\u003c\/b\u003e.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMahmoud Shukair was born in 1941 in Jerusalem, and grew up there. With a Masters degree in Philosophy and Sociology he worked for many years as a teacher, journalist and editor-in-chief of cultural magazines. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe was jailed twice by the Israeli authorities, lasting nearly two years, and in 1975 was deported to Lebanon. He returned to Jerusalem in 1993 after living in Beirut, Amman and Prague. He is the author of 25 books, nine short story collections, 13 works for children, a biography and a travelogue. He has written six drama series for TV, three plays and countless newspaper and magazine articles.\u003cbr\u003eSome of his short stories have been published in French, Spanish, Korean and Chinese, as well as English.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Books","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040827464,"sku":"9780954966638","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_09e7c730-4202-4dd0-8c95-fd0c7ce167d7.jpeg?v=1752237085"},{"product_id":"a-retired-gentleman-and-other-stories","title":"A Retired Gentleman and other stories","description":"After a lifetime working as a professor of Arabic literature and a translator of contemporary Arab authors into English, the author now regales his readers with a rich medley of tales that will continue to resonate long after the book is put down. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis characters are mainly migrants to Canada and the USA from Palestine Lebanon and Syria, starting their lives again, dealing with their memories, with pasts that cannot be recalled, with exile, with just being immigrants. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe stories question how they have lived their lives. How did they settle into a new life? What happened to all the old relationships? How did they go about making new ones?  Was it possible still to love? To fall in love again? Did they find happiness in their new country?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIssa J. Boullata\u003c\/b\u003e is a Palestinian author, literary critic and translator, born in Jerusalem. He is formerly Professor of Arabic Literature at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.  He has written numerous non-fiction literary works, including \u003ci\u003eTrends and Issues in Contemporary Arab Thought\u003c\/i\u003e (1990), \u003ci\u003eA Window on Modernism: Studies in the Works of Jabra Ibrahim Jabra\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eRocks and a Wisp of Soil\u003c\/i\u003e (2005) in Arabic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe has one novel in Arabic, \u003ci\u003eA’id ila al-Quds\u003c\/i\u003e (1998).   His translations include Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s memoirs \u003ci\u003ePrincesses' Street\u003c\/i\u003e (2005) and \u003ci\u003eThe First Well\u003c\/i\u003e (1995), Mohamed Berrada’s \u003ci\u003eThe Game of Forgetting\u003c\/i\u003e (1986), Emily Nasrallah’s \u003ci\u003eFlight Against Time\u003c\/i\u003e (1997), and Ghada Samman’s \u003ci\u003eThe Square Moon\u003c\/i\u003e (1998). \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Books","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040827616,"sku":"9780954966669","price":7.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_bb34ce12-c1f9-4101-b3a6-7eb4c1d8a6a2.jpeg?v=1752237084"},{"product_id":"banipal-39-modern-tunisian-literature","title":"Banipal 39 - Modern Tunisian Literature","description":"Tunisia is known as a popular holiday destination but until now its rich literature has not had the recognition it deserves, except for the poems of Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabi. Banipal 39 – Modern Tunisian Literature features over 150 pages of poetry and fiction by Tunisian authors, plus an introduction to the country’s literary pioneers with profiles, and book reviews.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBanipal 39 – Modern Tunisian Literature includes newly translated works of the foremost poet in the Arab world, Adonis. Also fiction from major authors Fadhil al-Azzawi and Mekkawi Said, and poems from upcoming British-Lebanese poet Omar Sabbagh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlus a tribute to the late Taher Wattar (1936-2010), and to critic Farouk Abdel-Kader (1938-2010).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlus Book Reviews: Albert Cossery – \u003ci\u003eThe Jokers\u003c\/i\u003e, Habib Selmi – \u003ci\u003eThe Scents of Marie-Claire\u003c\/i\u003e, Mahmoud Darwish – \u003ci\u003eJournal of an Ordinary Grief\u003c\/i\u003e, Inaam Kachachi – \u003ci\u003eThe American Granddaughter\u003c\/i\u003e, Hédi Kaddour – \u003ci\u003eTreason\u003c\/i\u003e, Mohamed Mansi Qandil – \u003ci\u003eMoon over Samarqand\u003c\/i\u003e and Hayan Charara’s Arab American poetry anthology, \u003ci\u003eInclined to Speak\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040828100,"sku":"2216314615363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_b55af476-40f5-4d8e-a9ea-42ee9940e0d7.jpeg?v=1752237896"},{"product_id":"banipal-37-iraqi-authors","title":"Banipal 37 – Iraqi Authors","description":"Banipal’s first issue of 2010 celebrates authors from Iraq with over half its 224 pages devoted to fiction and poetry by 21 writers from different generations, some spread across the world, but many writing from within the country. We celebrate, in particular, a new generation of Iraqi fiction writers and poets who are free to write the story of Iraq we’ve been waiting to hear, however hard, and are indebted to all the translators and copy-editors who made the issue possible. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• Writers who are completely new to Western readers are Nazum al-Obeidi and Nassif Falak (who has his own hair-raising personal story of flight, capture on a number of borders and imprisonment in Abu Ghraib during the Saddam regime), the atmospheric writer Enas al-Badran, Ahmad Saadawi and Shakir Nouri. PLUS many more . . . \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePLUS\u003cbr\u003e• Glimpses into the powerful fiction of Yemeni author Ali Mohammed Zayd, of Egyptian novelists Mohamed al-Bisatie and Ezzat el-Kamhawi \u003cbr\u003e• An excerpt from Algerian poet Habib Tengour’s historical epic poem Ce Tatar-là, in translation by Marilyn Hacker \u003cbr\u003e• A short story from Flemish author Rachida Lamrabet, translated from the Dutch. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePLUS book reviews, and literary festivals photo-reports \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040832592,"sku":"2093114615363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_7c4d8b23-f236-489b-9f33-b84f89b1c374.jpeg?v=1752237886"},{"product_id":"the-myrtle-tree","title":"The Myrtle Tree","description":"Young Adam Awad, his wife and daughter live in the remote village of his family, in the Lebanese countryside where his uncle maintains there are no “vendettas and bloody feuds like in the North, no history of arms and bloodshed”.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe wants to restore his father’s olive press house and live an idyllic life farming in peace, but it is 1976 and the civil war is closing in. The village becomes divided, but still Adam is determined to find a way to stop the escalation… \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJad El Hage comments: “The most recent of our wars began in the 1970s and ended by stages in the early 1990s, depending on how one defines ‘beginning’ and ‘end’. This uncertainty characterised the entire conflict. The only certainty is that we killed each other for more than fifteen years.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJad El Hage\u003c\/b\u003e was born and grew up in Beirut.  He has worked as a journalist since he was sixteen – with the Arab press, the BBC World Service in London, Radio Monte Carlo (Paris) and Harlequin Arab World in Athens.  In 1985 he emigrated to Australia with his family. He has one novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Last Migration\u003c\/i\u003e, written in English like \u003ci\u003eThe Myrtle Tree\u003c\/i\u003e, and in Arabic, a novel and collections of poetry and of short stories, as well as two plays staged, with selected works translated into French, German Spanish and Dutch. He divides his time between Melbourne and a small village in north Lebanon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBetter than any political analysis, this remarkable novel, set in a Lebanese mountain village, conveys with razor-sharp accuracy the sights, sounds, tastes and tragic dilemmas of Lebanon’s fratricidal civil war.  A must read…\u003c\/i\u003e — Patrick Seale\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Books","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040836260,"sku":"9780954966645","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_57dcfd65-982d-4178-9246-57587a537323.jpeg?v=1752237708"},{"product_id":"banipal-42-new-writing-from-the-emirates","title":"Banipal 42 - New Writing from the Emirates","description":"Banipal 42 focuses on the literature being written now in the United Arab Emirates. As readers begin their journey into the works of 27 writers, three introductory essays open up the background to the short story, the development of modern poetry and the state of the novel in the UAE today. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong the stories that stand out are Abdul Hamid Ahmed’s 'Kuya’s Little Things', about an Indian worker’s struggle to provide for his far-away family, the excerpt from Sara al-Jarwan’s novel \u003ci\u003eLetters to my Lord the Sultan\u003c\/i\u003e, spelling out the complexities of life in a family of one man with four wives and Adel Khozam’s reflections, \u003ci\u003eMusic\u003c\/i\u003e, in stanzas echoing the musical scale.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBanipal’s Guest Literature feature this issue comes from Germany: eight great authors at the top of their fields.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBanipal 42 opens with a return to the popular feature – Literary Influences. Prize-winning Saudi Arabian author Raja Alem recounts her passion for reading as a child and the world authors she read.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eContents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEditorial by Samuel Shimon\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRaja Alem – Literary Influences – \"Reading the infidels in Mecca\"\u003cbr\u003eAhmed Mourad – Excerpt from the novel \u003ci\u003eVertigo\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Robin Moger\u003cbr\u003eAhmed Khaled Towfik - Excerpt from the novel \u003ci\u003eUtopia\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Chip Rossetti\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew Writing from the Emirates\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNasser al-Dhaheri on The Beginnings of the Emirati Short Story\u003cbr\u003eAdel Khozam on The Development of Emirati Modern Poetry\u003cbr\u003eShaker Noori on Looking at the Emirati Novel\u003cbr\u003eAbdel Aziz Jassim – Selected Poems, translated by Allison Blecker\u003cbr\u003eFatima al-Mazrouei – Two short stories, translated by William M Hutchins\u003cbr\u003eMona Abdulkader al-Ali – A short story, translated by John Peate\u003cbr\u003eNujoom al-Ghanem – Selected Poems, translated by Khalid al-Masri\u003cbr\u003eAbdul Hamid Ahmed – 'Kuya's Little Things', a short story translated by Thomas Aplin \u003cbr\u003eDhabiya Khamis – Selected Poems, translated by Camilo Gomez-Rivas\u003cbr\u003eSara al-Jarwan – Excerpt from the novel \u003ci\u003eLetters to my Lord the Sultan\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Robin Moger\u003cbr\u003eAdel Khozam – Selected Poems, translated by Raphael Cohen\u003cbr\u003eRawdha al-Belushi – 'Resurrection Bus', a short story translated by Thomas Aplin Aisha al-Kaabi – Very short stories, translated by John Peate\u003cbr\u003eHabib Sayegh – Selected Poems, translated by Issa J Boullata \u003cbr\u003eAli Abu al-Reesh – Excerpt from the novel \u003ci\u003eRoom 357\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by William M Hutchins\u003cbr\u003eIbrahim Mohammed Ibrahim – Poems, translated by Fadhil al-Azzawi\u003cbr\u003eKhulood al-Mualla – Selected Poems, translated by Allison Blecker\u003cbr\u003eKhalid Albudoor – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger\u003cbr\u003eBasema Younes – 'Silence', a short story translated by Ali Azeriah\u003cbr\u003eMohammed Al-Murr – A Portrait by Peter Clark\u003cbr\u003eMaisoon Saqr – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger\u003cbr\u003eMariam al-Ghafli – Excerpt from the novel \u003ci\u003eDaughter of the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by William M Hutchins\u003cbr\u003eMohammed al-Mazrouei – Selected Poems, translated by John Peate\u003cbr\u003eMariam al-Saedi – Two short stories, translated by Ghenwa Hayek\u003cbr\u003eAbdallah Abdulwahab – Selected Poems, translated by Fadhil al-Azzawi\u003cbr\u003eDhaen Shahine – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger\u003cbr\u003eAhmed Rashid Thani – Selected Poems, translated by Raphael Cohen\u003cbr\u003eAlice Johnson – Literary Salons and Book Clubs\u003cbr\u003eIbrahim al-Mullah – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger\u003cbr\u003eNasser al-Dhaheri – 'The Stone of Desire', translated by Reem Ghanyem\u003cbr\u003eEbtisam al-Mualla – 'A Dying Light', a short story translated by Sophia Vasalou\u003cbr\u003eDhabiya Khamis – 'A Travelling Tale', from the novel \u003ci\u003eLife As It Is\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Charis Bredin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGuest Literature - Germany\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHinrich von Haaren – 'Slow Tree of Joy', a short story translated by the author \u003cbr\u003eAnnika Scheffel – 'Pretty Big', a short story translated by Stefan Tobler\u003cbr\u003eElke Schmitter – Excerpt from the novel \u003ci\u003eMinor Misdemeanours\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Rachel McNicholl\u003cbr\u003eUlf Stolterfoht – Selected Poems, translated by Ken Cockburn\u003cbr\u003eVolker Kaminski – 'The Top Project', a short story translated by Katy Derbyshire\u003cbr\u003eThomas Lehr – Excerpt from the novel \u003ci\u003eSeptember: Fata Morgana\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Katy Derbyshire\u003cbr\u003eAntonia Baum – Exceprt from the novel \u003ci\u003eCompletely Lifeless, Preferably Dead\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Simon Pare\u003cbr\u003eJoachim Sartorius – Excerpt from the novel \u003ci\u003ePrinces' Island\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Stephen Brown\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBook Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlice Johnson: In a Fertile Desert, Modern Writing from the United Arab Emirates (selected, translated and introduced by Denys Johnson-Davies)\u003cbr\u003eMargaret Obank: \u003ci\u003eMy Early Days\u003c\/i\u003e by Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammad al-Qasimi\u003cbr\u003eNorbert Hirschhorn: Two Libyan Novels – \u003ci\u003eHomeless Rats\u003c\/i\u003e by Ahmed Fagih and \u003ci\u003eAnatomy of a Disappearance\u003c\/i\u003e by Hisham Matar\u003cbr\u003eSusannah Tarbush: \u003ci\u003eOne Day in April\u003c\/i\u003e by Jad El Hage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBooks in Brief\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Hashish Waiter, The Traveler and the Innkeeper, So You May See, Sabra Zoo, Abduction, Professor Hanaa, The Last Storytellers, The Granta Book of the African Short Story, The Present Tense of the World, Mediterraneans\/ Méditerranéenes: Our Mothers, Disordered World: Setting a New Course for the Twenty-first Century\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLast Page: Najwa Binshatwan - Letter from Benghazi\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003eThe translators in Banipal 42 from Arabic are:\u003cbr\u003eThomas Aplin, Ali Azeriah, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Allison Blecker, Issa J Boullata, Charis Bredin, Raphael Cohen, Reem Ghanyem, Camilo Gomez-Rivas, Ghenwa Hayek, William M Hutchins, Khalid al-Masri, Robin Moger, John Peate, Chip Rossetti, Sophia Vasalou\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe translators from German are:\u003cbr\u003eStephen Brown, Ken Cockburn, Katy Derbyshire, Rachel McNicholl, Simon Pare, Stefan Tobler\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe writers and book reviewers are:\u003cbr\u003ePeter Clark, Nasser al-Dhaheri, Norbert Hirschhorn, Alice Johnson, Adel Khozam, Shaker Noori, Margaret Obank, Susannah Tarbush \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040836464,"sku":"22739-1461-5363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_75d56f24-81fb-4cd1-b7a3-69476e911bf4.jpeg?v=1752237882"},{"product_id":"banipal-40-libyan-fiction","title":"Banipal 40 – Libyan Fiction","description":"Banipal's Editor Samuel Shimon writes: \"This is Banipal's 40th issue, and what an amazing coincidence that it should be dedicated to the celebration of Libyan literature at such an extraordinary historical moment in the Arab world when the region is witnessing a chain of uprisings and revolutions against dictatorial and corrupt regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and, finally, Libya.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"We at Banipal are very proud of this special issue on Libyan fiction, and with it announce our absolute solidarity with the Libyan people in their aspiration to democratic rule and the exercising of all their rights, the first of which are to express their thoughts and the abolition of all forms of censorship on audio-visual media and literature.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Libyan authors are: Ghazi Gheblawi, Wafa Al-Bueissa, Hisham Matar, Ibrahim al-Koni, Mohammed Mesrati, Razan Naim Moghrabi, Mohammed al-Asfar, Ahmed Fagih, Giuma Bukleb, Omar el-Kiddi, Saleh Snoussi, Najwa Binshatwan, Omar Abulqasim Alkikli, Azza Kamil al-Maghour, Ibrahim Ahmidan, Redwan Abushwesha, Mohammed al-Arishiya, Mohammed al-Anaizi. 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Order your copy now. And, all new subscriptions, for one or two years, will receive a free recent back issue. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- Celebrating ADONIS\u003cbr\u003e- Arabic writers in Sweden\u003cbr\u003e- Guest Literature: SLOVENIA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• \u003ci\u003eBanipal 41 – Celebrating Adonis\u003c\/i\u003e opens with poems by Libyan poet Ashur Etwebi and continues with fiction from four talented novelists, Rabee Jaber and Alexandra Chreiteh, both from Lebanon, Ali Bader from Iraq and Amir Tag Elsir from Sudan, all reflecting current trends in the Arabic novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• The issue's first feature, Arabic Writers in Sweden, presents works of authors who emigrated or escaped from, or had to flee Syria and Iraq and eventually settled in Sweden over the last two decades – from Syria Salim Barakat, Faraj Bayrakdar, Manhal Alsarraj, Mohammad Afif al-Hussaini and Sabri Youssef, and from Iraq Jalil Haydar, Nassif al-Nasseri and Farouq Salloum. We also include the young Swedish-Tunisian writer Jonas Hassen Khemiri who writes in Swedish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• To mark the eightieth birthday last year of the great internationally renowned Syrian poet Adonis, is the feature Celebrating Adonis with testimonies by some of the world’s most eminent literary figures, including V.S. Naipaul, Joachim Sartorius, Roger Allen and Yang Lian, the authors and critics Abdo Wazen, Hassouna Mosbahi and Hassan Najmi, plus an essay on his works in English translation by poet Stephen Watts, and an excerpt from Adonis’s latest poem 'A Concerto for Jerusalem', translated by Libyan American poet Khaled Mattawa.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• Developing intercultural dialogue is Banipal’s mission and \u003ci\u003eBanipal 41\u003c\/i\u003e starts a new regular Guest Literature feature. 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This is her first book for Five Leaves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i.selected\u003e","brand":"Five Leaves Publications","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040902484,"sku":"9780907123842","price":7.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_836b626e-b6a4-4917-b7d2-f8ae25ca3533.jpeg?v=1752236810"},{"product_id":"how-do-you-pronounce-nulliparous","title":"How Do You Pronounce Nulliparous?","description":"\u003cb\u003eZoë Fairbairns’\u003c\/b\u003e stories, set mainly in London and its more-or-less fashionable suburbs, occupy the spaces between words and actions, beliefs and realities. 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Each of these stories is touched by Wilson’s affection for male foibles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘Entertaining… Taut and funny’\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e— The Boston Globe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘Sublime… it might be considered a companion volume to the movie ‘Sideways’’\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e— Seattle Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘Tantalising…his writing engages on every page with disarming intelligence and imagination’\u003c\/i\u003e — Elle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJonathan Wilson\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the biography \u003ci\u003eMarc Chagall\u003c\/i\u003e, two novels, \u003ci\u003eA Palestine Affair\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Hiding Room\u003c\/i\u003e, two collections of stories, \u003ci\u003eSchoom\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAn Ambulance is on the Way: Stories of Men in Trouble\u003c\/i\u003e, and two critical studies of the fiction writings of Saul Bellow.  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