50 most important Arabic novels of the 21st century

The 21st century is a turning point for Arabic literature, where conventions, from genre to narrative, were disrupted and reimagined. While the Arabic novel was once largely defined by political themes and questions of identity, shaped by a turbulent colonial past, today’s writers have pushed those concerns further to explore them through style, setting and form.

From refugee camps in Ramallah and psychiatric wards in Baghdad to the alleyways of Makkah, the stories – and the landscapes – are as varied as the traumas uncovered.

Exile, dislocation and hope run through many of these books, sometimes conveyed in unflinching, reportorial prose and other times through allegory or sweeping historical fiction.

While Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine remain literary strongholds, voices from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Algeria also emerged to underscore the dynamism of Arabic literature.

Working alongside the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre – and with the input of more than 50 authors, publishers, experts, festival organisers and prize jurors from across Mena, including the Sheikh Zayed Book Award and the International Prize for Arabic Fiction – The National selected the 50 most important Arabic novels of the first quarter of the 21st century.

Presented in alphabetical order by country across the Arab League, this list only scratches the surface of the remarkable work produced in the region. It is not meant to be a definitive list – we are only 25 years into the century – but rather a guide and a tribute to the vibrant literary voices whose work brings nuance and depth to a misunderstood region, while also pointing to an exciting literary future.

Bahrain

Jariya (2014)
by Muneera Swar

Muneera Swar’s Jariya follows the life of Jouri, the owner of a beauty salon who grapples with her identity as the illegitimate daughter of a man who died after her birth. Being of African descent, she faces racism and discrimination but tries to find a purpose within society with her salon. Jariya holds a mirror up to Gulf society and asks questions about how we treat those among us who do not look like us. It asks important questions on integration and segregation. The resilience and thoughtfulness of its protagonist shines through.

Egypt

The Yacoubian Building (2002)
by Alaa Al Aswany

One of the most talked-about Arabic novels of the 21st century, The Yacoubian Building tells the story of Egypt and its cultural and social divides through the lives of residents in a single Cairo apartment block.

From the aristocrat Zaki Bey el Dessouki to the doorman’s son Taha El Shazli, the novel weaves these disparate lives for a vivid portrait of a society caught between tradition and modernity. Translated into more than 20 languages, it was adapted into a 2006 film featuring an ensemble cast featuring Adel Imam.

Sunset Oasis (2006)
by Bahaa Taher

Winner of the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008, this novel, set in the final years of 19th-century Egypt, follows Mahmoud Abdel Zaher, a government official exiled to govern the unruly desert oasis of Siwa, and his wife, Catherine, an Irish Egyptologist determined to trace the path of Alexander the Great.

Told through many viewpoints – including those of tribal leaders and Alexander himself – Taher delivers a masterful work illustrating how Egypt has long been a meeting point of cultures and trade.

Azazeel (2008)
by Youssef Ziedan

A respected historian, Youssef Ziedan surprised the Arab literary world with this gripping and accessible historical novel. Set in 5th-century Egypt, it is framed as the recently discovered memoir of the Egyptian monk Hypa. The story follows his journey from Upper Egypt to Syria, where he encounters forces that challenge both his spirituality and moral convictions – embodied in the novel’s enigmatic title character. Blending elements of murder mystery with philosophical reflection, Ziedan delivers a compelling narrative and a sharp critique of how religion can be manipulated by power.

After Coffee (2012)
by Abdel Rasheed Mahmoudi

Winner of the 2014 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature, After Coffee is a semi-autobiographical retelling of the life of Medhat, an orphan from the Nile Delta. After years of displacement, he eventually finds his way to Vienna, where instead of the freedom he longed for, he feels the crushing weight of exile and loneliness that has haunted him since childhood. Rich in reflections on everything from Egyptian classical literature and poetry to the tension between tradition and modernity, After Coffee is a soulful and introspective work.

The Blue Elephant (2012)
by Ahmed Mouad

At the time of its release, The Blue Elephant was hailed for moving away from realist and political fiction - which dominated Arabic novels - to embrace more western‑related genres such as crime, suspense and the supernatural. Backed by a pacy narrative, cinematic scenes and a flawed hero – a psychiatrist investigating a murder allegedly committed by an old friend – The Blue Elephant is a rip‑roaring read, showing that Arab authors can write genre fiction as well as their western counterparts. The novel went on to be adapted into a successful film and sequel directed by Marwan Hamed and starring Karim Abdel Aziz.

Al Halwani: The Fatimid Trilogy (2024)
by Reem Bassiouney

Another winner of the literature category at the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, Reem Bassiouney weaves together three loosely-connected stories set during Egypt’s Fatimid Dynasty, blending real historical figures with fiction to tell the epic tale of a family of dessert makers.

The narratives follow Jawhar Al-Siqilli, the Italian-born military commander who founded Cairo in the 10th century, and Salahuddin, the Egyptian sultan who reclaimed Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187.

Through these moments of political intrigue, societal upheaval and military ambition, Bassiouney anchors the story in the rituals and recipes passed down through generations of sweet makers, featuring traditional treats like qatayef – stuffed pancakes filled with sweet cheese and syrup – and Aroosat Al-Mawlid, a brightly coloured sugar doll shaped like a bride.

Iraq

The Loved Ones (2004)
by Alia Mamdouh

The Loved Ones is a thought-provoking examination of where our identities truly lie. The novel has a voiceless and inactive protagonist, pivoting around a character named Suhaila, who is in a coma in a hospital in Paris. Suhaila’s story only gradually becomes known to the reader as her friends travel from across the world to be at her bedside. Their recollections of Suhaila, her love of dancing and poetry, as well as her tragic past, constructs her identity in a patchwork, all while reflecting upon themes of exile and displacement. The Loved Ones stands out even in Alia Mamdouh’s prolific oeuvre, and won the 2004 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.

Frankenstein in Baghdad (2014)
by Ahmed Saadawi

Frankenstein in Baghdad is perhaps the most popular piece of fiction to have emerged from Iraq in the 21st century - and for good reason. The novel is a searing examination of sectarian violence that has distorted Iraqi society following the US invasion in 2003. It features a panoply of characters, including a journalist, an astrologer, a brigadier, a dealer of discarded objects and an elderly woman living alone with her cat. The novel’s star character, however, is its titular monster, named Whatsitsname, who is made from body parts of people who have been killed in terrorist attacks.

The novel was internationally praised for its deft use of horror and fantasy to explore the tragic and ineffable aspects of contemporary Iraqi society. It won the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

The Dispersal (Tashari) (2013)
by Inaam Kachachi

Inaam Kachachi’s The Dispersal (Tashari) gets its title from the Iraqi slang for buckshot, a hunting bullet with pellets that scatter widely. The novel begins in the 1950s, following a doctor named Wardiyah who works in the Iraqi countryside. Her work primarily involves delivering babies and tending to women's health.

As the country’s political state deteriorates, she is forced to leave for France to live with her niece. She develops a close relationship with her niece’s son, who has been brought up in the diaspora, and the novel is soon spurred by themes of loss, displacement and war.

Jordan

Notebooks of the Bookseller (2021)
by Jalal Barjas

Winner of the 2021 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, Notebooks of the Bookseller is set in Jordan and Moscow between 1947 and 2019. It tells the story of Ibrahim, a bookseller and voracious reader, who loses his shop and finds himself homeless and having had schizophrenia diagnosed. He begins to assume the identity of the protagonists of the novels he loved and commits a series of crimes, including burglary, theft and murder. He then attempts suicide before meeting a woman who changes his perspective on life.

The novel is structured as a series of notebooks and has many narrators, whose fates sometimes collide. Notebooks of the Bookseller is a heart-rending, fragmented tale of people who are ignored and overlooked by society. Barjas's work daringly depicts a difficult reality not only in Jordan, but the Arab world as a whole.

Kuwait

The Bamboo Stalk (2013) 
by Saud Alsanousi

Great literature is bold, and Saud Alsanousi’s The Bamboo Stalk is one of the most fearless in the Kuwaiti literary canon. Following a young man with a Kuwaiti father and Filipino mother, Alsanousi’s award-winning novel tackles hybrid identity struggles with unflinching clarity.

While the novel is pointed in its societal criticisms, it is also searching and contemplative, addressing taboos of race, class and religion through a personal and existential lens. Don’t let the simplicity of its prose fool you – this is a book with a lot on its mind.

The Book Censor's Library (2021) 
by Bothayna Al-Essa

Joining the ranks of Franz Kafka, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury is not an easy feat, but National Book Award finalist Bothayna Al-Essa does so with aplomb in her 2021 novel The Book Censor’s Library. Set in the near future, when most books have been banned by an all-powerful, all-seeing government, the novel follows a censor who finds himself compulsively collecting the novels he’s supposed to be destroying. The newfound obsession pulls him down a rabbit hole that leads to a secret group of librarians, pirate booksellers and defiant readers who enlist him to be their inside man.

Lebanon

Yalo (2008)
by Elias Khoury

In Yalo, Elias Khoury takes readers to the thick of the Lebanese Civil War. The novel toes the line between fantasy and reality. Its eponymous protagonist grows up in Beirut’s streets and becomes embroiled with a violent gang. His life takes an unexpected and downward turn when he is accused of rape and imprisoned. Yalo is forced to confess, despite having no memory of his crimes. As he writes his confession, he is forced to reckon with his family’s past and everything he has learned to suppress.

Yalo is a gripping title by a novelist celebrated for his deft explorations of identity, trauma and scars left by war.

June Rain (2006)
by Jabbour Douaihy

June Rain reflects upon Lebanon’s internal strife and divide. The novel, set in 1957, takes place after a massacre in a church that divides a village in two. This division, however, is not clear-cut. The once close-knit society becomes mired in distrust and hate. Neighbours turn on one another and married couples have to decide between each other and their families.

The massacre is told and retold through several perspectives and the panoply of characters give the novel a kaleidoscopic feel. Ultimately, June Rain is a poignant representation of the divisions that contort Lebanese society.

The Druze of Belgrade (2012)
by Rabee Jaber

Rabee Jaber’s The Druze of Belgrade is set in the aftermath of the 1860 civil war in Mount Lebanon. A group of fighters from the Druze community are forced to leave Lebanon, travelling by ship until they reach the fortress of Belgrade. The novel then begins exploring their lives in the Balkans, highlighting their struggle to assimilate within a society while also preserving their cultural legacy.

The novel’s prose effortlessly moves through decades and continents. Meanwhile, its cast of multi-dimensional characters provide sharp insight into experiences of displacement and the will to survive and thrive. The Druze of Belgrade won the 2012 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Autumn of Innocence (2017)
by Abbas Beydoun    

A tragic father-son relationship is at the heart of the Autumn of Innocence. The novel’s antagonist, Masoud, murders his wife before fleeing to Syria, where he joins an Islamist group. His son, Ghassan, grows up in his uncle’s care and in the shadow of his father’s sins. This estrangement is only the beginning of the novel as Masoud comes back to terrorise his native town and Ghassan decides to stand up against his father with murderous intent. The novel won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in 2017.

The Night Mail (2019)
by Hoda Barakat     

The Night Mail is an epistolary epic that brings the marginalised to the fore. It's seemingly unrelated cast of characters share the ache of dislocation. Some are exiles and migrants, while others are homeless. They share their lives in letters and eventually their fates intertwine.

The novel won the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, making Barakat the first woman writer to win the award without sharing it with another author.

Hind or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World (2019)
by Hoda Barakat

Hind or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World revolves around a young woman who, after being disfigured by an illness, is isolated from the public by her mother. The woman eventually travels to France in search of a cure and, as she discovers there is none, begins to live as a drifter.

Like many of Barakat’s works, Hind or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World is a character drama that is masterfully composed, presenting an evocative portrait of a person battling alienation. Barakat received the 2024 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for the novel, making her the winner of the region’s three most prestigious literary prizes, including the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2000 for The Tiller of the Waters.

Libya

Call of What Was Far (2006)
by Ibrahim Al-Kouni

While Ibrahim Al-Kouni is considered one of the most prolific Arabic-language novelists of the contemporary era, he did not learn the language until he was 12 – growing up in the Fezzan region under the traditions of the Tuareg people.

Of Al-Kouni’s more than 80 books, Call of What Was Far may be his most acclaimed. Winner of the 2008 Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the novel is a historical journey through Libya – both geographical and philosophical, informed by his adult life but also his formative experience in the desert as a boy.

Bread on Uncle Milad's Table (2021)
by Mohammed Alnaas

Alnaas’s debut novel is an examination of gender roles that follows a husband who decides to stay at home and maintain the household while his wife accepts outside employment. Told through a gripping narrative with unexpected twists and turns, the book is a thoughtful critique of both masculinity and femininity in Arab society – exploring its myriad facets socially, spiritually and psychologically without ideological judgment.

Bread on Uncle Milad's Table was the first novel from Libya to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Mauritania

Wadi Al-Hatab (2019)
by Sheikh Ahmad Alban

Set in the eastern Mauritanian town of Affala between 1930 and 1950, this lyrical novel by Alban offers a rare glimpse into the communal life of his homeland. It is a world where oral storytelling traditions and local customs often clash with the cultural policies imposed by the French colonial government. The novel received regional acclaim after winning the 2020 Katara Prize for Arabic Novel, which led to its translation into English.

Morocco

The Polymath (2002)
by Bensalem Himmich

The Polymath is a historical novel centered on the eventful life of the 14th century philosopher and historian Ibn Khaldun. Set against the political turmoil of the Islamic world, the novel follows Khaldun’s intellectual journey as he grapples with exile, power, and the responsibilities of scholarship. Himmich captures the philosopher’s inner conflicts, revealing how the pursuit of knowledge often clashes with political and religious orthodoxy. The Polymath explores Himmich’s recurring interest in the lives of thinkers caught in the currents of history.

Himmich is one of Morocco’s leading contemporary writers and was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2002. He was also recognised with the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in 2019.

The Arch and the Butterfly (2010) 
by Mohammed Achaari

The Arch and the Butterfly is an exploration of ideological disillusionment and generational rupture in contemporary Morocco. Told across three generations, the novel tracks three characters’ experiences with exile and return - and the disappointment laced within them. It eventually explores the third generation’s complete disillusionment, which leads the grandson of the first character to leave behind an architecture career to join the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Achaari, a former Minister of Culture and an accomplished poet, writes with lyrical precision and insight, tracing the emotional wreckage of a family undone by historical forces beyond its control. The Arch and the Butterfly won the 2011 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, the 'Arabic Booker'.

Oman

Celestial Bodies (2019)
by Jokha Alharthi

Winner of the International Booker Prize, Jokha Alharthi’s Celestial Bodies is about three sisters and their unhappy marriages. The book explores themes of entrapment, whether by marriage or by servitude, and the aspirations of liberation. Each character tries to find an escape in their lives, something that distracts them from their reality. Despite this, reality always catches up and reminds them of their hardships.

Through Celestial Bodies, Alharthi comes to grips with Oman’s history with slavery, how the families in her story descended from either slaves or slavers, and how that reflects on modern Omani society.

The Exile of the Water Diviner (2023)
by Zahran Alqasmi

Zahran Alqasmi’s The Exile of the Water Diviner follows a man employed by a village to track the underground springs hidden deep in the Earth. In Arabic, the word for narrator also means someone who gives water, and with this double meaning, Alqasmi gives his protagonist a higher purpose.

The water diviner has always had a special relationship with water, both positively and negatively. His parents both died drowning, yet it also gives his own life meaning and earns him a living. In his quest to find water for a village, he becomes trapped underground, struggling to remain alive, thinking of his life and what led him to this moment.

Palestine

The Fools of Bethlehem (2015)
by Osama Alaysa

The Fools of Bethlehem stands out for its narrative style, which blends vignettes and reportage with a hefty dose of magical realism. The novel, as its title suggests, takes place in Bethlehem. It follows a group of patients in a psychiatric hospital whose stories reflect upon events in the city. It deftly juxtaposes inner and outer conflicts, showing how madness is a natural reaction to the tragic reality that weighs on Palestinian society. The novel won the 2015 Sheikh Zayed Book Award.

Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Nakba (2016)
by Rabai Al-Madhoun

Destinies by Rabai Al-Madhoun is written in four parts, each representing a concerto movement. The novel focuses on the different aspects of Palestinian experiences. It highlights the daily struggles and tragedies of Palestinians in their homeland, while also delving into the experiences of Palestinians in exile - who are trying to return to their homeland - as well as those living under occupation and forced to assume Israeli citizenship.

The novel tackles the historical context of the conflict as well, examining events from the 1948 Nakba onwards. In that sense, Destinies is a nuanced novel that offers insight into the breadth of the Palestinian struggle. The novel won the 2016 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

The Second War of the Dog (2016)
by Ibrahim Nasrallah

The Second War of the Dog is an unflinching reflection of the deterioration of human values and ethics. The novel is set in an unnamed dystopian country, where its main character, Rashid, begins as a revolutionary, standing up against a brutal regime. However, he soon transforms into an extremist driven by self-serving ambition and greed. As such, the novel becomes a portrait of corruption in a society with no moral baseline.

The Second War of the Dog won the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Velvet (2016)
by Huzama Habayeb

Velvet is a love story set in the Baqaa refugee camp in Jordan. The story is centered on Hawwa, a young Palestinian woman who begins to learn tailoring from a widowed woman named Qamar. As she learns the craft and develops an appreciation for the velvet fabric, Hawwa begins to learn about Qamar’s life. The novel also touches upon the lives of other women in Baqaa, delivering a sprawling perspective of daily life in the refugee camp.

The novel, which won the 2017 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, has been often compared to Barakat’s The Tiller of Waters, particularly for the way it deals with fabrics as a metaphorical device for history and hope.

A Mask, the Colour of the Sky (2024)
by Basim Khandaqji

A Mask, the Colour of the Sky follows the life of Nur, a Palestinian archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah. On finding a blue identity card belonging to an Israeli citizen in the pocket of an old coat, Nur takes on the life of the card’s namesake in an attempt to understand life behind the security fence.

The premise is an innovative way of examining the self, the other and the world, while also highlighting the displacement, genocide and racism that Palestinians have endured under Israeli occupation.

Khandaqji has a personal understanding of these struggles. The author was born in Nablus in 1983, and was arrested on terrorism charges by Israeli authorities in 2004. He is serving three life sentences in an Israeli prison. A Mask, the Colour of the Sky won the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Saudi Arabia

The Dove's Necklace (2011)
by Raja Alem

Raja Alem offers a different, though no less evocative, view of Makkah – one removed from its spiritual symbolism and immersed instead in the gritty, vibrant alleyways replete with history and hidden local secrets. Beginning with a murder in the historic Umm Al Nar Quarter, Alem ingeniously makes one of Makkah's streets the narrator. The resulting investigation, in this Ipaf-winning novel, exposes the city’s social undercurrents as it grapples with community tensions and patriarchal forces.

Throwing Sparks (2010)
by Abdo Khal           

Winner of the 2010 Ipaf award, Abdo Khal sets this pensive and at times violent novel in 1980s Jeddah, a city in the grip of a powerful tycoon known as The Master. As a lowly employee in his palace, Tariq is forced to film the sadistic acts The Master inflicts on his enemies, a task that triggers a crisis of conscience and faith. An unsettling meditation on the corruptive power of wealth, Throwing Sparks remains one of the boldest novels to emerge from the kingdom and a cautionary tale for a Saudi Arabia undergoing change.

A Small Death (2017)
by Mohammed Hasan Alwan

An epic fictional account of the Sufi mystic Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, A Small Death traces his life from his birth in 12th-century Muslim Spain to his death in Damascus. The novel follows his travels across several countries and his search for four aqtab – spiritual guides – one of whom is a woman he loves. While the historical backdrop is compelling, A Small Death soars when exploring Ibn 'Arabi’s inner journey and spiritual struggles.

Voyage of the Cranes in the Cities of Agate (2017) 
by Omaima Al-Khamis

A young 11th-century Andalusian scholar travels east in search of knowledge and self-realisation. Traversing the intellectual hubs of Cairo, Baghdad and Jerusalem, he questions notions of faith, identity and freedom of thought. Deeply researched yet written in gentle, lyrical prose, Al Khamis offers a rich portrait of a transformational moment in the region, while evoking the pluralism that defined the height of the Islamic Golden Age.

Sudan

The Grub Hunter (2011)
by Amir Tag Elsir

After losing a leg in an ambush, former spy Abdalla Harfash – from an unnamed East African country – decides to become a novelist as a way to channel the paranoia and post-traumatic stress of his former profession. The resulting manuscript, which begins as a standard memoir before evolving into a potent exploration of censorship, draws the attention and suspicion of his former employers. Restrained and laced with irony – hallmarks of El Sir’s style – The Grub Hunter is a standout work from one of Sudan’s most formidable modern novelists.

The Longing of the Dervish (2016) 
by Hammour Ziada

Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, The Longing of the Dervish is a sweeping historical novel set in late 19th-century Sudan, during the tumultuous period of the Mahdist revolution.

Former slave Bakhi Mindeel reflects on the betrayal that led to his imprisonment by the British-backed government and plots his revenge. Shifting between past and present, Ziada offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of a revolutionary Sudan grappling with the rise of religious extremism and xenophobia after the traumas of colonial rule.

Syria

No Knives in the Kitchens of This City (2013)
by Khaled Khalifa

No Knives in the Kitchen of This City is a multigenerational story that centres on a middle-class family in Aleppo. The novel takes place between the 1960s and the 2000s. Its shadowy narrator is born around the time of the 1963 Baathist coup.

In a way, the novel shows the mechanism of control and fear that the Baath imposed on the country, without actually naming the party or its leaders. It explores a culture of shame, fear and mourning – the stifling precursors of the revolution. No Knives in the Kitchen of This City is a tale of a city contorting and disintegrating under a dictatorship, told beautifully through lyrical prose and a cast of larger-than-life characters.

Remorse Test (2018)
by Khalil Sweileh

Remorse Test is a novel based in war-torn Syria that is split into two parts. The novel begins with a series of online exchanges between journalist Narinj and actress Hamida. While their private messages begin with formal pleasantries, they develop from there, with both offering their reflections on the war and ultimately an unrequited romance. The second half takes the reader into Damascus, as Narinj wanders the streets in an attempt to capture the mood of a city living on edge. The novel won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. It came as a follow-up to Writing Love, which received the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2009.

The Russian Quarter (2017)
by Khalil Sweileh

The Russian Quarter does not concern itself with traditional storytelling, nor does it follow the tracks of a chronological narrative. Instead, the novel is written as a collection of scenes. Its premise is this: war encroaches on the Russian Quarter, a fictional neighbourhood on the outskirts of Damascus. Its populace has, for years, resisted slipping into the bloody conflict that has upended the rest of the country and displaced its citizens. But now, it seems there is no staving off the war any longer. However, rather than picking up arms, the denizens of the Russian Quarter resort to telling stories to see that they survive through the conflict.

The novel is narrated by a translator living in the neighbourhood zoo with Nuna, a knitter. Its characters also include a former journalist who now works as the zoo manager, a French teacher, an oud player in a cabaret, and a little-known Russian writer.

Suleima's Ring (2022)
by Rima Bali

Set between Aleppo and Toledo, Suleima’s Ring switches between several narrators from disparate backgrounds, including its Syrian protagonist Selma, an Italian musician Shams Al-Din and Spanish-Jewish photographer Lucas. What unites them is a shared love for Aleppo. Suleima’s Ring is a tribute to the ancient city, while also lamenting the afflictions and suffering it endured in recent years. Its title references a magical ring that may be the city’s salvation. The novel was shortlisted for the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.