Arabia Books

New Haus venture of Arabic fiction in translation

Date: 2008-04-11

Arabia Books is a new publishing venture established by Haus Publishing, working in close cooperation with the American University in Cairo Press, the leading publisher of Arabic literature in translation.

www.arabia-books.co.uk

REVIEW

'I'm over the moon to have stumbled onto Arabia Books with their glorious collection of translated Arabic literature stretching from the faraway sands, exotic bazaars and sleepy hamlets of Libya, Algeria and Damascus to rural traditional heartlands closer home like Iraq Beirut and Egypt.

I feel celebratory about such romantic publishing innovations and would like to read a lot more literature from Arabia books to interpret my own philosophies of the Middle-East and to develop my understanding of a people I have always found to be sensual, mysterious and beautiful.

Both Haus Publishing and Arabia Books feature a colourful assortment of translated literary fiction and non-fiction works from Arab writers on their homegrounds or experts who have tasted and lived quite elegantly, the cultures they write of.

This is the place to go if you can't make always make sense of a complex media when it comes to Middle-Eastern affairs and if you want to understand Arab culture, taste the pulse of its eloquent prose and lose yourself in the rich myriad web of storytelling sagas.

The whole concept of specialising in translated Arab fiction for the West also suggests another important point for instrospection as opposed to Arab writers in the diaspora, writing contemporary English fiction in the West, that currently makes for the majority of publicised commercial fare.'

November 12, 2008

by Suzan Abrams


http://suzan-abrams.blogspot.com:80/