{"title":"Series: The Arab List","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Arab List\u003c\/strong\u003e offers a diverse collection that spans across philosophy, finance, history, and beyond, inviting readers to explore thought-provoking ideas and practical insights. From profound reflections on altruism and value investing to engaging stories for younger audiences, this series encourages discovery through a broad literary and intellectual lens.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith titles ranging from compelling graphic novels and travel adventures to authoritative guides on technology and security, \u003cem\u003eThe Arab List\u003c\/em\u003e caters to curious minds eager to deepen their understanding of the world—whether through the lens of culture, business, or creativity.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-dance-of-the-deep-blue-scorpion-by-akram-musallam-9780857428936","title":"The Dance of the Deep-Blue Scorpion","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eAn experimental novel that explores the complexity of Palestinian identity through extended metaphor and dark humour.\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn a plastic chair in a parking lot in Ramallah sits a young man writing a novel, reflecting on his life: working in a dance club on the Israeli side of the border, scratching his father’s amputated leg, dreaming nightly of a haunting scorpion, witnessing the powerful aura of his mountain-lodging aunt. His work in progress is a meditation on absence, loss, and emptiness. He poses deep questions: What does it mean to exist? How can you confirm the existence of a place, a person, a limb? How do we engage with what is no longer there?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAbsurd at times, raw at others, \u003ci\u003eThe Dance of the Deep-Blue Scorpion\u003c\/i\u003e explores Palestinian identity through Akram Musallam’s extended metaphors in the hope of transcending the loss of territory and erasure of history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853312119020,"sku":"9780857428936","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/7214893482493.jpg?v=1759196695"},{"product_id":"the-turban-and-the-hat-by-sonallah-ibrahim-9780857429803","title":"The Turban and the Hat","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA novel of the invasion and occupation of Egypt by Napoleonic France as seen through the eyes of a young Egyptian.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Napoleonic-era French invasion and occupation of Egypt are often seen as the Arab world’s first encounter with the military and technological prowess of the West—and it came as a terrible shock. \u003cem\u003eThe Turban and the Hat\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of those three tumultuous years from the perspective of a young Egyptian living in late-eighteenth-century Cairo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKnowing some French, he works as a translator for the occupiers. He meets their scientists and artists, has an affair with Bonaparte’s mistress, and accompanies the disastrous campaign to take Syria, where he witnesses the ravages of the plague and the horrific barbarism of war. He is astonished by the invaders’ lies and propaganda, but he finds that much of what he thought he knew about his fellow Egyptians was also an illusion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eConvincing in its history but rich in themes that resonate today, \u003cem\u003eThe Turban and the Hat\u003c\/em\u003e is a story of resistance, but also of collaboration, cooperation, and corruption. Sonallah Ibrahim, one of Egypt’s foremost novelists, gives us a marvellous account of the Western occupation of an Arab land, one that will resonate with contemporary readers. His portrayal of this tragic—and at times comic—“clash of civilizations” is never didactic, even as it reminds us that so many lessons of history go unlearned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853351932140,"sku":"9780857429803","price":46.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/7223563482493.jpg?v=1759198075"},{"product_id":"among-the-almond-trees-by-hussein-barghouthi-9780857428967","title":"Among the Almond Trees","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA poetically written and bitterly sweet memoir about nature, death, life in Palestine, and the universal concept of home.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePalestinian writer Hussein Barghouthi was in his late forties when he was diagnosed with lymphoma. He had feared it was HIV, so when the cancer diagnosis was confirmed, he left the hospital feeling a bitter joy because his wife and son would be spared. The bittersweetness of this reaction characterises the alternating moods of narration and reflection that distinguish this meditative memoir, \u003cem\u003eAmong the Almond Trees\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBarghouthi’s way of dealing with finality is to return to memories of childhood in the village of his birth in central Palestine, where the house in which he grew up is surrounded by almond and fig orchards. He takes many healing walks in the moonlit shadows of the trees, where he observes curious foxes, dancing gazelles, a badger with an unearthly cry, a weasel, and a wild boar with its young—a return not only to the house but to nature itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe author decides to build a house where he would live with his wife and son, in whom he sees a renewal of life. The realisation of his impending death also urges him to vocalise this experience, and he relates the progress of the disease at infrequent intervals. Ultimately, he details the imaginative possibility of a return to life—to the earth, where he would be buried among the almond trees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46855705362668,"sku":"9780857428967","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/80d3ee1124254f4820ca74452319a3ce.jpg?v=1759284950"},{"product_id":"ever-since-i-did-not-die-by-ramy-al-asheq-9781803094540","title":"Ever Since I Did Not Die","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThrough seventeen powerful testimonies, Syrian-Palestinian poet Ramy Al-Asheq's \u003cem\u003eEver Since I Did Not Die\u003c\/em\u003e is a poignant autobiographical journey that vividly depicts what it means to live through war.\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe texts gathered in \u003cem\u003eEver Since I Did Not Die\u003c\/em\u003e by Syrian-Palestinian poet Ramy Al-Asheq are a poignant record of a fateful journey. Having grown up in a refugee camp in Damascus, Al-Asheq was imprisoned and persecuted by the regime in 2011 during the Syrian Revolution. He was released from jail, only to be recaptured and imprisoned in Jordan. After escaping from prison, he spent two years in Jordan under a fake name and passport, during which he won a literary fellowship that allowed him to travel to Germany in 2014, where he now lives and writes in exile.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough seventeen powerful testimonies, \u003cem\u003eEver Since I Did Not Die\u003c\/em\u003e vividly depicts what it means to live through war. Exquisitely weaving the past with the present and fond memories with brutal realities, this volume celebrates resistance through words that refuse to surrender and continue to create beauty amidst destruction—one of the most potent ways to survive in the darkest of hours.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46855768834284,"sku":"9781803094540","price":28.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781803094540.jpg?v=1759276438"},{"product_id":"this-thing-called-love-by-alawiya-sobh-9781803095905","title":"This Thing Called Love","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA heart-wrenching story about love, loss, sex, the friendship between women, and the universal struggle to come to terms with death.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJust before the outbreak of the July 2006 war in Lebanon, a middle-aged woman named Nahla has gone missing. Distraught, besieged, and without any leads, Nahla's dearest friends—Suad, Azizeh, Hoda, Nadine, and the narrator Alawiya—band together to console one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey reminisce about the better days of their youth, lifetimes of romantic turmoil, the trouble with love, and their inescapable confrontation with death. Unsure whether Nahla has been killed in the fighting, fled the country, or disappeared into the oblivion of Alzheimer's, Alawiya pieces together Nahla's intimate past, simultaneously illuminating the jagged history of modern Lebanon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough searching discussions with Nahla's closest confidante Suad, tenacious investigation, and an imaginative effort to reconstruct the life of another, Alawiya might just find a way to bring Nahla back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThis Thing Called Love\u003c\/em\u003e, celebrated Lebanese novelist Alawiya Sobh takes the war between Israel and Hizballah as the backdrop for a heart-wrenching story about love, loss, sex, the friendship between women, and the universal struggle to come to terms with mortality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072945307884,"sku":"9781803095905","price":47.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27059143482829.jpg?v=1765133640"},{"product_id":"the-town-i-never-told-you-about-by-ghassan-zaqtan-9781803096063","title":"The Town I Never Told You About","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA haunting, lyrical meditation on memory, loss, and homeland, with the poems threading together the personal and the collective in a Palestine shaped by conflict and beauty.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Town I Never Told You About\u003c\/em\u003e gathers poems written by celebrated Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan between 2022 and 2024, at a time of intensifying conflict ravaging his homeland. Emerging from both memory and imagination, these poems trace the contours of hillscapes and villages, mapping a Palestine that is both historical and mythic, personal and collective.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn Zaqtan's hands, language threads its way through time—winding across landscapes marked by war, displacement, and enduring beauty. Each poem feels like part of a longer thread: a moment lifted from an ongoing inner epic, stitched into being with dreamlike clarity and haunting precision.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLong meditative pieces drift through shadow and sunlight, while other poems strike with the sharpness of remembered incident. This is poetry as pilgrimage—quiet, persistent, and full of echoes. A book that doesn't so much end as continue resonating long after the last page is turned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47307373478124,"sku":"9781803096063","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27060723482829.jpg?v=1771074196"},{"product_id":"the-universe-all-at-once-by-salim-barakat-9781803094038","title":"The Universe, All at Once","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA collection showcasing the latest poems of the Kurdish-Syrian maestro of Arabic style.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSalim Barakat, the captivating Kurdish-Syrian poet and novelist known for his mastery of Arabic style, is hailed as an enigmatic and intricate figure in contemporary Arabic literature. In \u003cem\u003eThe Universe, All at Once\u003c\/em\u003e, he curates, in collaboration with translator Huda J. Fakhreddine, a selection from his later works, considering them the pinnacle of his poetic career.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawn from pieces composed between 2021 and 2023, the poems in this collection vary from excerpts of an expansive book-length poem to concise, intense fragments. Fakhreddine expertly renders his writing in English, a courageous and praiseworthy attempt to challenge the barriers of the untranslatable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis volume not only showcases the prolific author's poetic evolution but also features a comprehensive interview with Barakat. Conducted by Fakhreddine, the interview delves into Barakat's early influences, hobbies, talents, reader expectations, and reflections on displacement, childhood, and interpersonal connections.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTogether, \u003cem\u003eThe Universe, All at Once\u003c\/em\u003e presents the best of Barakat's latest poetry to his readers and allows invaluable insight into the writing processes and motivations of a visionary modern poet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47428336615660,"sku":"9781803094038","price":35.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781803094038.jpg?v=1774497030"},{"product_id":"strangers-in-light-coats-by-ghassan-zaqtan-9781803092386","title":"Strangers in Light Coats","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA highly anticipated edition of Zaqtan’s work from 2014 to 2020, all in English for the first time.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGhassan Zaqtan is not only one of the most significant Palestinian poets at work today, but one of the most important poets writing in Arabic. Since the publication of his first collection in 1980, Zaqtan’s presence as a poet has evolved with the same branching and cumulative complexity as his poems—an invisible system of roots insistently pushing through the impacted soil of political and national narratives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eStrangers in Light Coats\u003c\/em\u003e is the third collection of Zaqtan’s poetry to appear in English. It brings together poems written between 2014 and 2020, drawn from six volumes of poetry. Catching and holding the smallest particles of observation and experience in their gravity, the poems sprout and grow as though compelled, a trance of process in which fable, myth, and elegy take form only to fall apart and reconfigure, each line picked apart by the next and brought into the new body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47432668512492,"sku":"9781803092386","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781803092386.jpg?v=1774556767"},{"product_id":"passage-to-the-plaza-by-sahar-khalifeh-9780857427700","title":"Passage to the Plaza","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Bab Al-Saha, a quarter of Nablus, Palestine, sits a house of ill repute. In it lives Nuzha, a young woman ostracised from and shamed by her community. When the Intifada breaks out, Nuzha’s abode unexpectedly becomes a sanctuary for those in the quarter: Hussam, an injured resistance fighter; Samar, a university researcher exploring the impact of the Intifada on women’s lives; and Sitt Zakia, the pious midwife.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the furnace of conflict at the heart of the 1987 Intifada, notions of freedom, love, respectability, nationhood, the rights of women, and Palestinian identity—both among the reluctant residents of the house and the inhabitants of the quarter at large—will be melted and re-forged. Vividly recounted through the eyes of its female protagonists, \u003ci\u003ePassage to the Plaza\u003c\/i\u003e is a groundbreaking story that shatters the myth of a uniform gendered experience of conflict.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47471331541228,"sku":"9780857427700","price":46.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780857427700-passage-to-the-plaza.jpg?v=1775239912"},{"product_id":"the-screams-of-war-by-akram-alkatreb-9781803093505","title":"The Screams of War","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLyrical and powerful poems that serve as a powerful reminder of the human cost of war.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"Those who believe in the currency of patience \/ Were burned out in the alleyway.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Screams of War\u003c\/em\u003e is a visceral collection of poems that confront the realities of contemporary Syria. Akram Alkatreb's verses capture the sense of the quotidian during war. His words, mere \"murmurs engraved on stones,\" long for and despair over an irrevocable past.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt the heart of Alkatreb's work lies a preoccupation with trauma and the profound burden of alienation that accompanies exile. Nascent memories are shrouded by the \"scars of sleep,\" and words find themselves nostalgic for destruction. The ubiquity of violence that Alkatreb channels into his poetry does not tolerate enclaves of innocence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Screams of War\u003c\/em\u003e is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human spirit and a stark reminder of the harsh realities faced by those trapped in conflict.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47471827517676,"sku":"9781803093505","price":35.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/4913e97d694661a232bb8ea7985d1c96.jpg?v=1775694208"},{"product_id":"the-third-bank-of-the-jordan-river-by-hussein-barghouthi-9781803096483","title":"The Third Bank of the Jordan River","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA dreamlike novel from Palestine that traces a restless soul's journey through landscapes of memory, longing, alienation, and exile.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this profound and evocative novel, acclaimed Palestinian author Hussein Barghouthi invites readers on an extraordinary, youthful journey through a landscape of memory, longing, alienation, and exile. Translated with great sensitivity by his son, Áthar Barghouthi, this deeply personal narrative unfurls as a stream-of-consciousness odyssey, blurring the lines between reality and dream. Haunted by a pervasive sense of loss, the prose, rich with poetic imagery, explores themes of displacement, identity, and the enduring shadows of a contested homeland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Third Bank of the Jordan River\u003c\/em\u003e is a powerful, meditative work that defies conventional boundaries. With unflinching honesty, Barghouthi confronts the political through deeply human stories, capturing the restless search for meaning and the enduring human hunger for connection and freedom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47650596913388,"sku":"9781803096483","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781803096483-the-third-bank-of-the-jordan-river.jpg?v=1779329077"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/series-the-arab-list.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}