Fiction Catalog

Author: Aisha Abdel Gawad

ISBN: 9780593467824

Between Two Moons follows twin sisters Amira and Lina as they navigate faith, family, and identity during Ramadan in Bay Ridge, while their brother returns from prison and protests erupt, in a powerful coming-of-age story set in post-9/11 Muslim America.

[TAGS]

religion, united states of america, intersectionality, women, protest, community, belonging

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Author: Susan Abulhawa

ISBN: 9781608190461

Mornings in Jenin follows Amal, a Palestinian girl born in a refugee camp, as her family endures decades of war, exile, and loss. Spanning continents, the novel explores displacement, identity, and the power of love and memory.

[TAGS]

Palestine, conflict, grief, migration, belonging, community

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Author: Susan Abulhawa

ISBN: 9781982137038

Against the Loveless World follows Nahr, a Palestinian woman in solitary confinement, as she reflects on love, loss, and resistance while navigating refugee life, war, exile, imprisonment, and Israeli occupation—a bold, dark, and defiant tale.

[TAGS]

Palestine, conflict, human rights, faith, protest, resistance, spirituality,

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Author: Kaveh Akbar

ISBN: 9780593537619

Martyr! follows Cyrus Shams, a troubled poetic addict, as he grapples with grief, identity, and the legacy of violence. Haunted by his mother’s mysterious death and his father’s harsh life, he explores martyrdom, memory, and art to uncover hidden truths.

[TAGS]

family, faith, coming-of-age, belonging, healing, identity

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Author: Refaat Alareer

ISBN: 9781935982357

Gaza Writes Back is a powerful collection of short stories by 15 young Gazan writers reflecting on life under siege, especially after Israel’s 2008–2009 offensive. Their moving tales reveal everyday struggles, resilience, and hope amid ongoing conflict.

[TAGS]

narrative, resistance, war, Palestine, identity, activism

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Author: S.K. Ali

ISBN: 9781481499248

Saints and Misfits features Janna, as she struggles to find her place among saints, misfits, and a monster hiding behind a holy mask at her mosque. As her world shifts, she must speak up, face the truth, and discover what people are really hiding.

[TAGS]

identity, faith, coming-of-age

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Author: Huda Fahmy

ISBN: 9780593324301

Huda F Are You? follows Huda’s coming-of-age in Dearborn, where hijabis are everywhere. Trying different cliques to stand out, she feels lost until realizing that knowing who she isn’t is the first step to discovering who she truly is.

[TAGS]

united States, America, Muslim, faith, identity, young adult

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Author: Huda Fahmy

ISBN: 9780593532805

Huda F Cares? Huda’s family heads to Disney World, but she’s nervous about standing out. On a long road trip and in a less familiar place, Huda faces stares while praying, sisterly challenges, new friendships, and growing pride in her faith and identity.

[TAGS]

belonging, young adult, faith,

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Author: Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shoven

ISBN: 9780358116684

A Place at the Table follows Sara, new to public school, and Elizabeth, coping with her mom’s depression, as they bond in a South Asian cooking class. Despite their differences, they collaborate on a cross-cultural dish and try out for a local food show.

[TAGS]

family, women, tradition, culture, healing, community, friendship, young adult

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Author: Hena Khan

ISBN: 9781481492065

Amina’s Voice follows Amina, a Pakistani-American Muslim girl, as she navigates shifting friendships and identity struggles after her mosque is vandalized, facing the challenge of choosing between blending in and staying true to her roots.

[TAGS]

Pakistan, immigration, community, united states, gender, women, identity

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Author: Deena Mohamed

ISBN: 9781524748418

In Shubeik Lubeik, three strangers in Cairo—Aziza, Nour, and Shokry—buy magical wishes that force them to confront grief, depression, and faith. Fantastical yet grounded, their journeys explore power, inequality, and the cost of fulfilling one’s deepest desires.

[TAGS]

identity, healing, Egypt, fantasy, grief, faith, belonging, friendship

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Author: Aisha Saeed

ISBN: 9780399544682

In Amal Unbound, Amal dreams of becoming a teacher but must stay home to care for siblings. Forced into servitude at a corrupt landlord’s estate to pay family debt, she faces hardship, rivalry, and danger. Determined, Amal seeks allies to challenge injustice and pursue her dreams.

[TAGS]

friendship, family, resistance

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Author: N. H. Senzai

ISBN: 9781442401945

Shooting Kabul follows 12-year-old Fadi, who in 2001 flees Afghanistan with his family but loses his sister Mariam in the chaos. After settling in the US post-9/11, he enters a photo contest offering a trip to India, hoping to find her. Inspired by true events, the story highlights hope and perseverance.

[TAGS]

united stated, America, resistance, family, coming-of-age, conflict,

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Author: N. H. Senzai

ISBN: 9781442484955

Saving Kabul Corner follows twelve-year-old tomboy Ariana, who clashes with her ladylike Afghan cousin Laila after she moves in. When a rival grocery store reignites a family feud, Ariana, Laila, Mariam, and Waleed must unite to save their families’ businesses and find peace.

[TAGS]

family, friendship, coming-of-age, gender, young adult

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Author: Zoulfa Katouh

ISBN: 9780316351379

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow follows Salama, a Syrian pharmacy student volunteering at a hospital during war. Torn between fear and loyalty, she plans to escape before her sister-in-law’s birth while facing danger, moral dilemmas, and a revolution demanding her choice for freedom.

[TAGS]

resistance, conflict, war, activism

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Author: Ghassan Kanafani

ISBN: 9780894108570

This collection by Ghassan Kanafani includes the novella Men in the Sun and several powerful stories that vividly portray the struggles and pain of Palestine and the Middle East with unflinching clarity and deep insight.

[TAGS]

conflict, war, resistance, collection, activism, adult

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Author: Ghassan Kanafani

ISBN: 9781566565486

All That's Left to You depicts 24 hours in the lives of a brother and sister in Gaza, separated from family. Through their pain and the desert’s presence, it explores Palestinian ties to land, family, and loss, highlighting the brother’s anger and shame over his sister’s fate.

[TAGS]

Palestine, religion, hope, resistance

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Author: Fatimah Asghar

ISBN:9780525509783

In If They Come for Us, Fatimah Asghar’s debut poetry collection, she explores identity, loss, and belonging as a young Pakistani Muslim woman in America. Using bold, experimental forms, she weaves personal and collective histories, confronting trauma, joy, and inherited violence.

[TAGS]

Pakistan, immigration, Islam, history, coming-of-age, race, gender, family, belonging,

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Author: George Abraham and Noor Hindi

ISBN: 9798888903650

Heaven Looks Like Us is a poetry anthology that confronts Palestinian exile, grief, and resistance while celebrating queer, feminist, and ecological voices. It imagines a future beyond the nation-state, featuring both iconic and emerging poets.

[TAGS]

collection, Palestine, gender, activism, conflict, resistance, politics, protest

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Author: Tayeb Salih

ISBN: 9780141187204

In Season of Migration to the North, a man returns to his Sudanese village and meets the mysterious Mustafa Sa’eed, who shares his dark past in post-WWI London. Once celebrated and objectified, Mustafa’s revenge on the West leaves a haunting legacy in the village.

[TAGS]

Europe, community,belonging, Arab, african, war,

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Author: Eman Quotah

ISBN: 9781951142452

Bride of the Sea follows Muneer and Saeedah, whose marriage ends in heartbreak when Saeedah disappears with their daughter. As Muneer searches for years, secrets unravel and Hanadi grows up torn between two worlds, caught in the middle of love, loss, and identity.

[TAGS]

family, friendship, grief, Saudi Arabia, america

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Author: Kamelya Omayma Youssef

ISBN: 9781735924298

A Book with a Hole in It uses fragmented poetry and journal entries to explore the limits of language amid intersecting violences—on women, on diaspora, on the non-White body. It questions what can be spoken, what remains silent, and how healing might begin.

[TAGS]

race, gender, women, intersectionality, resistance, narrative

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Author: Ayaan Mohamud

ISBN: 9781803704517

The Thread That Connects Us is a novel that explores the clash between Safiya and Halima when their families are unexpectedly brought together. As they navigate heartbreak and resentment, buried secrets reveal that sisterhood may be the path to healing and new beginnings.

[TAGS]

family, grief, friendship, young adult,

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Author: Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

ISBN: 9781949487145

Kaan and Her Sisters explores grief, survival, and memory through Miss Sahar, an Arabic teacher displaced across Arab cities. Through poetry and stories, it reveals resistance to erasure and honors women who preserve intergenerational history amid shifting times.

[TAGS]

family, liberation, community, conflict, protest, tradition

[/TAGS]

Author: Rhonda Roumani

ISBN: 9781454950714

Tagging Freedom is a middle-grade novel, a young Syrian graffiti artist uses his art to protest injustice during the Arab Spring. As the conflict around him grows, he must choose between safety and standing up for freedom. A story of courage, expression, and hope.

[TAGS]

social justice, young adult, friendships, race, art, identity

[/TAGS]

Author: Khaled Hosseini

ISBN: 9780747566533

Kite Runner, set in Afghanistan and the United States, follows Amir, a privileged boy, and Hassan, his loyal friend and servant’s son. After a betrayal that haunts him into adulthood, Amir returns to a changed homeland to seek redemption. A powerful story of guilt, loyalty, and the long shadow of war.

[TAGS]

America, friendship, family, comingof-age, hope

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Author: Samira Ahmed

ISBN: 9780349003344

Internment is set in a near-future America and follows teen Layla Amin as she is sent to a Muslim internment camp. Inside, she joins a growing resistance, fighting for freedom, justice, and her voice.

[TAGS]

united states, immigration, liberation, resistance, activism, friendship, young adult

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Author: Adania Shibli

ISBN: 9781913097172

Minor Detail follows two narratives: one recounts the 1949 rape and murder of a Palestinian girl by Israeli soldiers; the other, set decades later, follows a woman obsessed with uncovering the truth. A stark, haunting exploration of violence, memory, and erasure.

[TAGS]

Palestine, war, resistance, human rights

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Author: Uzma Jalaluddin

ISBN: 9781984802798

Ayesha at Last is a modern Muslim retelling of Pride and Prejudice, this romantic comedy follows Ayesha, a poet and teacher, and Khalid, a conservative IT worker, as they navigate faith, family, and unexpected love.

[TAGS]

romance

[/TAGS]

Author: Sara Sharaf Beg

ISBN: 9780593482629

In Salaam With Love, set during Ramadan, Dua leaves home to spend the month with extended family, expecting boredom but finding connection, faith, and first love. A coming-of-age story about identity, tradition, and growing into yourself.

[TAGS]

friendship, young adult, romance,

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Author: G. Willow Wilson

ISBN: 9780802118875

In The Butterfly Mosque, G. Willow Wilson recounts her conversion to Islam, move to Egypt, and cross-cultural love story. A reflection on faith, identity, and belonging in a post-9/11 world.

[TAGS]

migration, romance, culture, tradition, belonging, community

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Author: S. A. Chakraborty

ISBN: 9780062678102

The City of Brass, set in 18th-century Cairo, follows Nahri as she accidentally summons a djinn warrior and is swept into the magical city of Daevabad. There, she uncovers her hidden heritage and navigates a world of power, politics, and ancient rivalries.

[TAGS]

egypt, fantasy, history, friendship,

[/TAGS]

Author: Helen Wecker

ISBN: 9780062110831

The Golem and the Jinni is set in 1890s New York, featuring a golem and a jinni—creatures of Jewish and Arab folklore—as they form an unexpected bond and navigate immigrant life, hidden identities, and the search for belonging.

[TAGS]

immigration, community, history, fantasy, friendship,

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Author: Guy Gavriel Kay

ISBN: 9780060733490

The Lions of Al-Rassan is set in a land inspired by medieval Spain, the story follows Jehane, a skilled physician; Rodrigo, a Jaddite captain; and Ammar, a renowned Asharite poet and fighter. As tensions rise between their divided cultures, the three are drawn together by loyalty and love.

[TAGS]

history, war, romance, friendship

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Author: G. Willow Wilson

ISBN: 9780802129031

The Bird King, a fantasy set in 1491 Granada, follows Fatima, the sultan’s concubine, and Hassan, a mapmaker who can bend reality by drawing. Fleeing the Inquisition, they’re joined by a jinn and a monk as they chase a mythic refuge called the Bird King—exploring love, freedom, and the power of story.

[TAGS]

fantasy, friendship, history

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Author: Laila Lalami

ISBN: 9781524747145

The Other Americans is a novel about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant--at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture.

[TAGS]

race, religion, romance, United States, social justice,

[/TAGS]

Author: Khaled Hosseini

ISBN: 9781594489501

A Thousand Splendid Suns follows two Afghan women, Mariam, forced into marriage as a teenager, and Laila, whose life is upended by war as become co-wives to the same abusive husband in Kabul. Over decades of conflict, they forge a powerful bond of love and sacrifice. Their friendship becomes a lifeline in a brutal world, at great personal cost.

[TAGS]

women, family, hope

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Author: Reem Faruqi

ISBN: 9780063044708

Unsettled is about Nura, who has just left Karachi for suburban Georgia, where everything feels unfamiliar—school, friendships, even the pool where she once felt strong. As she tries to fit in, tensions with her older brother grow, and a single moment of silence changes everything. Told in free verse, her story traces the quiet resilience of a girl learning to stay true to herself in a world that sees her as different.

[TAGS]

identity, family, belonging, community, race, religion, gender, young adult

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Author: Leila Aboulela

ISBN: 9780802126245

The Kindness of Enemies follows Natasha, a history professor researching Imam Shamil, a 19th-century Muslim leader. When her student Oz, Shamil’s descendant, is arrested, the novel explores history, identity, and being Muslim in a post-9/11 world.

[TAGS]

Islam, africa, history, war

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Author: Randa Abdel-Fattah

ISBN: 9780439922333

Does My Head Look Big in This? follows 16-year-old Amal as she wears the hijab full-time, navigating prejudice, teasing, family reactions, and teenage life, while embracing her faith with humor and resilience.

[TAGS]

religion, Islam, Muslim, race, identity, social justice, coming-of-age, young adult

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Author: Mohsin Hamid

ISBN: 9780735212176

Exit West follows Nadia and Saeed, two lovers fleeing a war-torn city through mysterious doors, navigating displacement, identity, and survival as they struggle to hold on to love, home, and themselves in an uncertain world.

[TAGS]

conflict, romance, family, migration, community, belonging, resistance, liberation

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Author: Leila Aboulela

ISBN: 9780802170149

Minaret follows Najwa, a former privileged Sudanese student turned London maid, as she navigates exile, embraces her Islamic faith, and forms a quiet bond with her employer’s brother, offering a lyrical insight into contemporary Muslim life.

[TAGS]

Europe, family, friendship, community, belonging, migration, culture

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Author: Sadhek Khan

ISBN: 978-1911240839

Derek, a cabbie born and raised in East London, wakes up from a coma only to find that Britain is now ruled by Sharia law. He finds himself unable to cope with the dramatic changes and desperately searches for answers.

[TAGS]

politics, Europe, resistance

[/TAGS]

Author: Sahar Mustafah

ISBN: 978-1623715830

In the middle of dinner one evening, Intisar Jaber receives a phone call that will upend her quiet life in Chicago: her father is dying and she must go to Palestine to pay her final respects.
Powerfully etched in Sahar Mustafah’s honest and lyrical prose, The Slightest Green explores the place, and people, we call home and how far we will go to reach them.

[TAGS]

America, Palestine, United States, migration, family, community, belonging, culture

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Author: Sahar Mustafah

ISBN: 978-1324003380

The Beauty of Your Face is a profound and poignant exploration of one woman’s life in a nation at odds with its ideals, an emotionally rich novel that encourages us to reflect on our shared humanity. If others take the time to really see us, to look into our face, they will find something indelibly familiar, something achingly beautiful gazing back.

[TAGS]

America. united states, palestine, conflict, social justice, faith, identity, immigration, Islam, community, belonging, spirituality

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Author: Hisham Matar

ISBN: 978-0812994841

One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat, and has the sense that his life has been changed forever. Obsessed by the power of those words, and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa, Khaled eventually embarks on a journey that will take him far from home, to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh.

[TAGS]

Europe, Libya, conflict, immigration, family. belonging, friendship, faith, spirituality

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ISBN: 978-9927004346

Author: Kummam Al Maadeed

Clara has a terrible secret, a sin she won’t reveal, not even to Luca, the man who rescues her from the lake where she’s thrown herself, hoping death would silence her pain. While Luca nurses Clara to health and tries to gain her trust, mutiny is brewing in Tharun, their neighboring kingdom.

[TAGS]

grief, healing, fantasy, romance

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ISBN: 978-9927161971

Author: Lilas Taha

A man’s dying wish unearths a tumultuous past and brings
together two lost souls searching for the missing pieces that will make them whole again…each other. When a horrific terrorist attack rocks the airport Sami Amara happens to be transiting through, it triggers a chain reaction of events which threatens to jeopardize everything he holds dear, including his
relationship with his fiancée, Petra.

[TAGS]

conflict, romance, adventure

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 9789927161124

Author: Basma El Khatib

As the scents of cooking waft through her small apartment in Beirut, our heroine is confronted by memories of the past. They are as much a part of her as the jagged scar on her neck that she dutifully hides, and the invisible scars that mar her soul that she doesn't need to.

[TAGS]

healing, immigration, identity

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ISBN: 9789927119750

Author: Lilas Taha

Omar is an orphaned Palestinian born into chaos, displaced by violence, and driven by forces beyond his control to find his place in the world. Nadia is maturing into womanhood in a refugee community in Damascus. Bitter Almonds is about displacement and exile, family duty and honor, and the universal feelings of love and loss.

[TAGS]

Palestine, coming-of-age, healing, culture, family

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-1335418654

Author: Laila Sabreen

In this compelling and thought-provoking debut novel, after a terrorist attack rocks the country and anti-Islamic sentiment stirs, three Black Muslim girls create a space where they can shatter assumptions and share truths.

[TAGS]

conflict, gender, race, women, intersectionality, Muslim, young adult, resistance, politics, identity, protest, belonging, social justice

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ISBN: 978-0802160669

Author: Leila Aboulela 

This novel is an enchanting narrative of the years leading up to the British conquest of Sudan in 1898, and a deeply human look at the tensions between Britain and Sudan, Christianity and Islam, colonizer and colonized. In River Spirit, Aboulela gives us the unforgettable story of a people who, against the odds and for a brief time, gained independence from foreign rule through their willpower, subterfuge, and sacrifice.

[TAGS]

resistance, liberation, protest, war, faith, family, community, belonging

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-0863567728

Author: Reem Gaafar

The Nile brings them life, but the Nile also takes away. A small farming village in North Sudan wakes up one morning to the news that a little boy has drowned. Soon after, the animals die of a mysterious illness and the date gardens catch fire and burn to the ground. The villagers whisper of a sorceress who dwells at the foot of the mountains. It is the dry season. The men have places to go, the women have work to do, the children play at the place where the river runs over its own banks. Sixteen-year-old Fatima yearns to leave the village for Khartoum.

[TAGS]

family, conflict, war, adventure, women, tradition, culture, politics, , gender, social justice

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ISBN: 978-0863569760

Author: Faiza Guene

Alternating fragments from Yamina’s Algerian past with those of her Paris present, Discretion spans the history of colonial conflict from the Second World War to the present day. A tribute to mothers everywhere, it is also the story of a modern French family feeling their way through the puzzle of their history, and finding one another as they go along. 

[TAGS]

family, religion, immigration, Europe, Muslim, faith,

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-0863560613

Author: Mahmoud Darwish

At once lyrical and philosophical, questioning and wise, full of irony, resistance and play, Darwish’s musings on unrest and loss dwell on love and humanity. In these pages, myth and dream are inseparable from truth.

[TAGS]

faith, spirituality, narrative, grief

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-0063324237

Author: Susan Muaddi Darraj

Funny and touching, Behind You Is the Sea brings us into the homes and lives of three main families, the Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars, Palestinian immigrants who’ve all found a different welcome in America. Behind You Is the Sea faces stereotypes about Palestinian culture head-on and, shifting perspectives to weave a complex social fabric, this compelling family saga is replete with weddings, funerals, broken hearts, and devastating secrets.

[TAGS]

Palestine, faith, tradition, immigration, community, grief

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-1526653475

Author: Abdulrazak Gurnah

Daud has immigrated to England in the wake of political turmoil in his native Tanzania. For years, he has tried to hide his past. But when he meets Catherine, he is determined to recount for her the stories of his tragic upbringing, his flight to England, and the racism in his new homeland. Structured as a pilgrimage, one which leads Daud deep into the pain and beauty of the past and forward into a new understanding of his life in exile, Pilgrims Way is a captivating, lyrical story about identity, memory, and immigration.

[TAGS]

migration, culture, racem, friendship, identity, history,

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-1501169052

Author: Zeyn Joukhadar

This “beguiling” and stunning novel begins in the summer of 2011. Nour has just lost her father to cancer, and her mother moves Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria to be closer to their family. In order to keep her father’s spirit alive as she adjusts to her new home, Nour tells herself their favorite story, the tale of Rawiya, a twelfth-century girl who disguised herself as a boy in order to apprentice herself to a famous mapmaker.

[TAGS]

gender, middle east, North Africa, war, family,

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-9774168628

Author: Rabai al-Madhoun

Written in four parts, each as a concerto movement, Rabai al-Madhoun’s pioneering new novel explores Palestinian exile, with all its complex loyalties and identities. Broad in scope and sweeping in its history, it lays bare the tragedy of everyday Palestinian life.

[TAGS]

Palestine, family, migration, grief, hope, social justice, human rights

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-0143128793

Author:  Ahmed Saadawi

From the rubble-strewn streets of U.S.-occupied Baghdad, Hadi, a scavenger and an oddball fixture at a local café, collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and to give them proper burial. Frankenstein in Baghdad captures with white-knuckle horror and black humor the surreal reality of contemporary Iraq.

[TAGS]

war, fantasy, middle east

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-1328915856

Author: Hala Alyan

Lyrical and heartbreaking, Salt Houses is a multigenerational saga that follows three generations of a Palestinian family and asks us to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can’t go home again. On the eve of her daughter Alia’s wedding, Salma reads the girl’s future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967.

[TAGS]

family, war, conflict, grief, belonging, politics

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-1617759857

Author:  Rawya Jarjoura Burbara

The stories here are varied, and I did not interfere with the writers' content. I asked them to portray the city of Jerusalem as they live it, as they feel it, as they appreciate it, as they fear it, as they want it to be, and as they imagine it in the past, the present, and the future . . . And now we put the black box in your hands! Kindly open it to reveal the secrets of Jerusalem and its people, who wake up to the sound of a forgotten rooster from a previous era to declare the beginning of a new dawn, so that life will not stop recording its new diary entries.

[TAGS]

narrative, collectionhistory

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-0802157812

Author: Rabih Alameddine

Mina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend, Sumaiya. Bonded together by Sumaiya's secret, a deep connection sparks between the two women, and as Mina prepares a course of treatment with the limited resources on hand, she confronts the circumstances of the migrants' displacement, as well as her own constraints in helping them.

[TAGS]

adventure, friendship, culture, immigration, migration, healing, family, women

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-1594632334

Author: Mohsin Hamid

The astonishing and riveting tale of a man’s journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, this book steals its shape from the business self-help books devoured by ambitious youths all over “rising Asia.” It follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis where he begins to amass an empire built on that most fluid, and increasingly scarce, of goods: water. Yet his heart remains set on the pretty girl whose star rises along with his.

[TAGS]

romance, adventure, young adult

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-0063434875

Author: Uzma Jalaluddin 

When her grown daughter is suspected of murder, a charming and tenacious widow digs into the case to unmask the real killer in this twisty, page-turning whodunnit, the first book in a cozy new detective series from the acclaimed author of Ayesha at Last.

[TAGS]

adventure, family, grief, community, belonging, friendship, women, young adult

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-0063434967

Author: Uzma Jalaluddin

When Kausar Khan moved back to Toronto to be closer to her family, she didn't expect to have another murder investigation on her hands so soon—or really ever. But when a young man named Qasim is found dead in their Golden Crescent neighborhood, and when she learns he was close to her granddaughter, Maleeha, what’s a grandmother to do but try and solve the case?

[TAGS]

grief, women, young adult

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-1645679950

Author: Prerna Pickett

These genre-bending stories focus on the magic (and tension) of the biggest family gathering. Both award-winning and debut authors share stories of broken hearts, rekindled flames, unlikely romances, and one particular auntie who loves to meddle.

[TAGS]

community, romance, tradition, culture

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-0316351942

Author: Zoulfa Katouh

From the celebrated author of As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow comes a poignant novel about a Syrian American girl using a magical sketchbook to turn her grief into art, painting miraculous murals of her mother’s life in Syria. Seventeen-year-old Jihad Dabbagh has always seen life with a heightened sense for colors, one of many magical blessings the women in her family possess. But when depression sets in, the world is a colorless oasis, and in the wake of her mother's sudden death, the world has become a permanent shade of gray.

[TAGS]

grief, family, art, identity, women

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-1788453394

Author: Tasneem Abdur-Rashid

Her parents' divorce has Maaryah bidding bye-bye to Dubai and her life of luxury . . . and hello to dreary London, where things get . . . complicated. There are house parties, annoying-yet-hot boys and the isolating reality of being the only hijabi in a massive school. Can Maaryah stay true to herself, even when another bombshell rocks her world . . .?

[TAGS]

coming-of-age, romance, young adult, Muslim, women

[/TAGS]

ISBN: 978-0815612018

Author: Hamoud Saud

In this lyrical collection, author Hamoud Saud invites readers into the soul of Oman, a country famed for its long coastline, rugged mountains, and stark desert landscapes. This geography provides the backdrop for stories that reveal both the beauty and hardship of a country and people on the margins. Focused on the capital city, Saud’s Muscat is not a postcard-perfect city but a living, breathing place of cement forests, forgotten roundabouts, and ravens perched on flagpoles.

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collection, culture, belonging, history

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ISBN: 978-1250899316

Author: Sarah Mughal Rana

All My Rage meets The Poet X in this electric debut that explores a Muslim teen finding her voice in a post-9/11 America. Nida has always been known as Mamou Abdul-Hafeedh’s niece, the poet who will fill her uncle’s shoes after he was wrongfully incarcerated during the war on terror. But for Nida, her poetry letters are her heart and sharing so much of herself with a world that stereotypes her faith and her hijab is not an option.

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politics, identity, race, gender, intersectionality, Pakistan, Muslim, family, activism, resistance, social justice

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ISBN: 978-0778387664

Author: Sarah Mughal Rana

Khamilla Zahr-zad’s life has been built on a foundation of violence and vengeance. Every home she’s known has been destroyed by war. As the daughter of an emperor’s clan, she spent her childhood training to maintain his throne. But when her clansmen are assassinated by another rival empire, plans change. Hiding her identity, Khamilla joins the enemy’s army school full of jinn, magic and martial arts, risking it all to topple her adversaries, avenge her clan and reclaim their throne.
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fantasy, war, family, healing, adventure

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ISBN: 978-1250824998

Author: Hafsah Faizal 

On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by night, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it, she can’t do the job alone. Dark, action-packed, and swoon worthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.

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fantasy, adventure, young adult

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ISBN: 978-1529098914

Author: Hafzah Faizal

White Roaring is sharpening its fangs after the deadly night that left the city in shambles. The press is dead, the public is calling for justice, vampires are in danger, and amid the turmoil, the Ram announces a celebration. As Arthie navigates new emotions and new allies, she must reassemble her scrambled crew and scrape what little they have left to fight one last time, and she will need to face the ghosts of her past to do it.

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fantasy, adventure, young adult

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ISBN: 978-1400078653

Author: Orhan Pamuk

With its cascade of beguiling stories about Istanbul, The Black Book is a brilliantly unconventional mystery, and a provocative meditation on identity. For Turkish literary readers it is the cherished cult novel in which Orhan Pamuk found his original voice, but it has largely been neglected by English-language readers. Galip is a lawyer living in Istanbul. His wife, the detective novel, loving Ruya, has disappeared. Could she have left him for her ex-husband or Celâl, a popular newspaper columnist? But Celâl, too, seems to have vanished.

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mystery, translation, identity, faith,

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ISBN: 978-0702271014

Author: Randa Abdel-Fattah

Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 student from a local Islamic college is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer, Ashraf sees an opportunity to exploit his personal connection to the situation for professional redemption. Meanwhile Hannah, who is juggling the demands of new motherhood and family trauma, fights racism in the newsroom

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identity, friendship, family, resistance, activism, politics, education, young adult

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ISBN: 978-1684633289

Author: Ambata Kazi

Far Away from Here is a novel about three young Black American Muslims on the cusp of adulthood confronting faith, tradition, and the impact of their personal decisions in five years post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. All three struggle to envision a future for themselves that they can actively shape. A testament to the stories we tell ourselves and each other, Far Away From Here is a coming-of-age novel threaded with themes of community, tradition, faith, and the courage to own one’s narrative.

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coming-of-age, religion, Muslim, United States, family, culture, young adult

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ISBN: 978-1250434661

Author: Deena Helm

There is something haunting Nuhad’s childhood home in Haifa. Cats avoid its perimeter, strange noises come from within, and residents have mysteriously vanished without a trace. Although Nuhad has not returned to her home since the Nakba in 1948, she always held a place for the house in her heart. And, in return, the house did the same for her.

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belonging, migration, culture, family, grief, healing, women, faith

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ISBN: 978-1558613645

Author: Sara Abou Ghazal

Sara Abou Ghazal’s English-language debut traces the worldwide, timewide scatter of the Abu Sukkar family in the wake of the 1948 Nakba and its displacement of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. At every turn, their hopes of an ordinary existence are brutally thwarted by false friends, renewed violence, and memories so vivid they refuse to be consigned to the past. Building to a surreal crescendo, Dreams of Ayn Ara maps the cosmic upheaval in which Zionist settler colonialism denies Palestinians not only a homeland, but a future.

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Palestine, family, culture, migration, war, grief, healing, human rights, history

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ISBN: 978-1668207192

Author: Mahmud El Sayed

The Safina is a city ship halfway through its four-hundred-year voyage from the ruins of Earth to a new colony world. Its crew maintain the ship, generation after generation, while protecting their ancestors in cryostasis so that one day they will be able to enjoy a fresh start under clear blue skies. But when blackouts start, unrest follows. Inspired by the real-world events of the Arab Spring, The Republic of Memory is a bold interrogation of empire and an energizing portrait of revolution.

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resistance, liberation, politics, migration,

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ISBN: 978-1682638101

Author: Alaa Al-Barkawi

Two Iraqi American best friends confront dark truths about their families in the wake of a devastating crime. As a seventeen-year-old single dad and a soon-to-be high school drop-out, Yassir Al-Azzawi's lapsed Shia faith is just another thing convincing his parents he's a failure. One more mistake, and they'll send him back to their homeland, a war-torn Iraq. When their secret friendship is exposed, the consequences set off a series of events that cause family secrets from both sides to come to light.

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united states, young adult, Muslim, identity, coming-of-age, social justice, family

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ISBN: 979-8347116126

Author: Radiya Hafiza

The savior will rise and lead an army to the gates of darkness. Only when the fire has fallen can light prevail. Prince Zayd, heir to Dakaria, the Silver Kingdom, spends his days defending the land from pirate raids. Princess Layla, heir to Sawan, dreams of running away and escaping her cruel, power-hungry mother. Could Layla be the key to uniting their kingdoms, or will the young royals’ forbidden love plunge them all into a devastating war?

Author: Fatima Bhutto

ISBN: 978-0143107866

Fatima Bhutto’s stunning debut novel chronicles the lives of five young people trying to live and love in a world on fire. Set during the American invasion of Afghanistan, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon begins and ends one rain-swept Friday morning in Mir Ali, a small town in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas close to the Afghan border.

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America, middle east, United States, family, identity, grief, war, conflict, resistance, hope

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Author: Marcela Fuentes

ISBN: 978-0593915417

A story full of passion and revenge, following one family living on the Texas Mexico border and a curse that reverberates across generations.

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united States of America, culture, tradition, women, young adult

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ISBN: 978-1565129757

Author: Julia Alvarez

The García sisters, Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía, and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after their father’s role in an attempt to overthrow brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo is discovered. In the wondrous but not always welcoming U.S.A., their parents try to hold on to their old ways as the girls try find new lives: by straightening their hair and wearing American fashions, and by forgetting their Spanish. Here they tell their stories about being at home, and not at home, in America.

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immigration, America, United States, culture, tradition, identity, liberation, race, women

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ISBN: 978-0062972415

Author: Tahereh Mafi

It’s 2003, several months since the US officially declared war on Iraq, and the American political world has evolved. Tensions are high, hate crimes are on the rise, FBI agents are infiltrating local mosques, and the Muslim community is harassed and targeted more than ever. It’s about a child of immigrants forging a blurry identity, falling in love, and finding hope, in the midst of a modern war.

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united states, Islam, Muslim, immigration, identity, grief, race, religion, intersectionality, romance

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ISBN: 978-1616958473

Author: Samira Ahmed

In this unforgettable debut novel, an Indian-American Muslim teen copes with Islamophobia, cultural divides among peers and parents, and a reality she can neither explain nor escape. The community she’s known since birth becomes unrecognizable; neighbors and classmates are consumed with fear, bigotry, and hatred. Ultimately, Maya must find the strength within to determine where she truly belongs.

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coming-of-age, immigration, belonging, resistance, identity, intersectionality, gender, conflict, social justice, politics, young adult

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ISBN: 978-1443405003

Author: Leila Aboulela

In 1950s Sudan, the powerful and sprawling Abuzeid dynasty has amassed a fortune through their trading firm, with Mahmoud Bey at its helm. But when Mahmoud’s son, Nur, the handsome heir to his business empire, suffers a debilitating accident, the family is suddenly divided in the face of an uncertain future.

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faith, liberation, resistance, spirituality, conflict, family,

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ISBN: 978-0241466940

Author: Nadifa Mohamed

Mahmood Mattan is a fixture in Cardiff's Tiger Bay, 1952. He is a father, chancer, some-time petty thief. He is many things, in fact, but he is not a murderer. So when a shopkeeper is brutally killed and all eyes fall on him. It is only in the run-up to the trial, as the prospect of freedom dwindles, that it will dawn on Mahmood that he is in a terrifying fight for his life.

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crime, justice, historical fiction

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IBSN: 978-0593851388

Author: Nussaibah Younis

A novel following an academic who flees from heartbreak and lands in Iraq with a one-of-a-kind job offer — only to be forced to do the work of confronting herself. A fierce, wildly funny, and razor-sharp exploration of radicalism, family, and the quest for belonging, Fundamentally boldly inspects one of the defining controversies of our age and introduces a fearless new voice in contemporary fiction.

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comedy, identity

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ISBN: 978-0525486480

Author: Soniah Kamal

Alys Binat had sworn never to marry — until an encounter with one Mr. Darsee at a wedding makes her reconsider. Told with wry wit and colorful prose, Unmarriageable is a charming update on Jane Austen’s beloved novel and an exhilarating exploration of love, marriage, class, and sisterhood.

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historical fiction, romance, feminism

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IBSN: 978-0593317600

Author: Laila Lalami

From Laila Lalami — the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and a “maestra of literary fiction” (NPR) — comes a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

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distopia, psychological, identity

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IBSN: 978-0525539094

Author: Khaled Hosseini

An illustrated book on the refugee crisis that will break your heart in under 48 pages, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed.

A mesmerizing debut novel set in a tightly knit Pakistani American community where a young doctor gets an unexpected second chance with the first love she never got over when he becomes one of the most eligible bachelors in town. Yours, Eventually is a story about a young woman finding the courage to follow her heart and coming to the realization that living your life according to what other people think is no life at all.

ISBN: 978-1529118643

Author: Hafsa Zayyan

Two lives, generations apart, set to collide with life-changing consequences. We Are All Birds of Uganda is a multi-layered, moving and immensely resonant novel of generational love, loss and what it means to find home.

ISBN: 978-0593541883

Author: Abdulrazak Gurnah

When he was just a boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents on the coast of east Africa by German colonial troops. Hamza, too, returns home from the war, he meets the beautiful, undaunted Afiya. As these young people live and work and fall in love, their fates knotted ever more tightly together.

Author: Mbarek Ould Beyrouk‍ ‍

ISBN: 9781912868087 

The Desert and the Drum tells of Rayhana’s rift with her family, the disturbing characters she encounters in the metropolis, her attempts to separate friend from foe, and to find a place for herself amidst the contradictions of contemporary Mauritania.

Author: Tarek Eltayeb 

ISBN: 978-9774167348  

In a desperate attempt to save his mother and two sisters from famine and disease, a young man leaves his native village in Sudan and sets out alone to seek work in the city, and later Europe. He experiences first-hand the harsh world of migrant laborers and the bitter realities of life as an illegal immigrant.