Five Arabic novels worth learning Arabic for

by Matthew (Arabic teacher) 

Sometimes in the midst of learning the Arabic language, a student might think to themselves "sun and moon letters? Genitive constructions? Wait, I have to learn a dialect too?" But you shouldn't get discouraged! Even though you have to learn irregular plurals and a whole other alphabet, I promise, it will all be worth it in the end. It is a beautiful ancient language with shades of meaning and a rich literary and historical heritage that will have you nerding out for years to come. Once you learn the language, you will be able to read things all the way back to pre-Islamic poetry written in the 6th century! But if things written before we knew the World was round isn't really your jam, here are five modern novels in Arabic that should make learning it worth all the صعوبة

امريكانلي - صنع الله ابراهيم

Amrikanli - Sonallah Ibrahim

This novel is a vaguely autobiographical account of an Egyptian history professor who goes to teach for a semester at a university in San Francisco in the mid 1990's. While there he comes across a foreign culture that he at once knows well from television and pop-culture and one that confounds and surprises him. He  grapples with issues like political correctness, racism and poverty, and the relationship between Americans and Arabs.  It is interesting to hear an Arab narrator's impressions of our own country as we are so often the ones doing the exoticizing. The prose is direct and simple and makes for a great first read for those who are new to the Arabic novel.

كتاب الطغرى - يوسف رخا

Book of the Sultan's Seal - Yusuf Rakha

This novel is insane. It is part morose stream of consciousness, part social commentary on contemporary Egyptian society, part Islamic civilization-referencing surrealist fantasy. The narrator Mustafa Chorabji wanders around Cairo with a weird cast of non-friends and realizes that his wanderings and dreams are pointing to the discovery of a theosophical plot to return the Islamic Umma to its former glory with the help of the ghost of an Ottoman Sultan. Yeah, it's insane. And awesome.

التيه -  عبد الرحمن المنيف

Cities of Salt - Abdul Rahman Munif

A 640 page novel about Americans drilling for oil in the Saudi Arabian desert and the havoc it causes on the native Bedouin population may not exactly sound like a page-turner, but it is indeed a gripping historical account unlike anything you may have ever read. The different native characters all deal in their own way with the destruction of their community, the introduction of Capitalism, and the marvels of modern technology like automobiles and radio. The narrative voice is mysterious and abstract which gives the novel the feel of an elaborate allegory. Anyone who is interested in the roots of the complicated geopolitical relationship between our country and the Arab Gulf should definitely check this book out.

باب الشمس - إلياس خوري
 gate of the Sun - Elias Khoury

A doctor sits at the bedside of his friend Yunus who is in a coma, lying in a bed in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. In order to keep him alive, he tells him a long stream of funny, tragic, and insightful stories. Meant to be a take on the storytelling tradition of 1001 Arabian Nights, Gate of the Sun explores the complicated patchwork of politics and culture in Lebanon. For such a divisive and loaded topic as the Arab Israeli conflict, sometimes the only truly impartial and human voice is that of literature.

البحث عن وليد مسعود  جبرا إبراهيم جبرا

in search of Walid Masoud - Jabra Ibrahim Jabra

The intellectual Walid Masoud's car is found suddenly abandoned in the deserts of Syria and for an entire witty, eloquent, and expansive novel we piece together anecdotes and recollections of who exactly was this Arab intellectual and activist. The novel deals with themes of political failure, the hidden experience of a lover, and the elusiveness of memory. Speaking of memory, I especially loved the opening sentence:
"If only there were an elixir for the memory, something that could bring back events in the order they happened, one by one, then turn them into words that would
cascade out onto paper!"