For Bread Alone was written by Mohammed Choukri. Choukri was born in Morocco, and spent most of his childhood in poverty. He was illiterate in the beginning of his life, but eventually learned to read and write in Arabic at the age of 20. As a child, he was subjected to an abusive father, leaning him to run away. He grew up homeless in the poorest neighborhoods of Tangier where he witnessed complete and utter misery like violence, prostitution, and drug abuse.

When the novel was first published, it was immediately banned in Morocco from 1983-2000, despite its international success. It was censored due to what the Moroccan government considered immorality. They proclaimed the book was provocative since it was sexually explicit and contained scenes of drug abuse.

Yet what is immoral about retelling a story or sharing a sad reality? The book was so successful that it was translated into 30 languages. The bitter reality of a small boy in Tangier Morocco, and his struggle for success, is what has enticed readers from all over the world.

The Shell (Al-Qawqaʿa: Yawmiyyāt Mutalaṣṣiṣ), is an autobiographical novel written by Mustafa Khalifa, and published in 2018. The book describes Khalifa’s time in prison. It is considered one of the greatest Syrian novels because it highlights the oppressive Syrian regime of Hafez- Al Assad. His novel was merely meant to be a “documentation” of his time in prison. He was mistakenly sent to prison on charges of Islamic Radicalization. What are the odds that Khalifa, an atheist, was presumed to be a radical islamist, and was thus locked up without trial for 13 years? 

This novel is unique in its form because it was written like a diary. The style also took on a more minimalist approach being less description and including less talk. An overall reflection of prison, the novel is colorless as it reveals what Khalifa faced, the direct physical, and psychological torment. It’s like a silent film, you can feel the emotional depth despite its limited description. He documents everything he goes through while tucked away from life, from sun. How does it feel to be innocent man in prison, to deal with the everyday plights of prison life, and to deal with a reality you can’t accept? You become lifeless, and so the novel too communicates lifelessness. 

In the Country of Men was written by Hisham Matar. Suleiman, the main character, grapples with the idea of happiness What does in mean to be happy, or to hope for happiness? How can you live when every day is a struggle to survive? You keep living because you must, because you believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. The novel shows the political oppression of Libya and the hardships of everyday life. Suleiman must confront his reality and face his demons, the demons of his own personal struggles, while he is viciously surveilled by the Qaddafi regime.

The novel showcases the life of Suleiman. In the beginning he is a 9-year-old boy who is on the fence. His family struggle with the consequence of his father’s fight against the Qaddafi regime. His father’s anti-Qaddafi sentiment “brings about” excessive surveillance, raids, stalking; they have no sense of privacy, dignity, and independence from the state police. 9-year old Suleiman deals with the consequences of his father’s protest against the regime as well as the drunkenness of his mother. There is a loss of degradation, you no longer feel human. At such an impressionable age, he also deals with an alcoholic mother, who drinks to cope, to live. He must live to mend the stitches of his fragile life, how does someone deal with his woes? How does someone manage to find happiness amongst the darkness? He continues his life hoping for a beam of light that might shine through the cracks on the wall. In the end, he moves to Cairo after having been forced to leave his home country. 

I saw Ramallah is a powerful novel written by Mourid Barghouti. It tells the story of one’s love for the homeland, and the pain of separation. Not only was Mourid separated from his homeland, but also from his family. He was banned from Palestine after participating in the 6-day war of 1967. He was forced to leave, living in exile. For 30 years, he explored most of the world, but suffered from separation anxiety. He was disorientated about his identity and his connection to his homeland.

Was his idea of his homeland simply a mirage? Was he simply a guest or can he be considered a citizen? When he left Palestine, it was his whole world. When he returned, it was no longer the Palestine he remembered, it was now under occupation. For Mourid, what’s worse than being murdered, is losing your “asl” which translates to origin in Arabic. He loses his sense of belonging, his identity and he feels he belongs nowhere. However, his struggles push him to explore the idea of what it actually means to be Palestinian. 

Girls of Riyadh is a novel written by Saudi writer Rajaa Alsanea. The most interesting aspect of the novel is the unknown narrator who narrates the lives of four Saudi girls: Lamees, Sadeem, Michelle, and Gamrah. You don’t know whether the narrator is one of the girls, or the all-knowing eye. It resembles the American show, “Gossip Girl” where an unknown person detailing the plights of these individual girls to an online audience through an email subscription.

This was originally published in Lebanon because of Saudi censorship. It was eventually published in Saudi but was met with resistance. It was not censored but had received heavy backlash and severe criticism. This modern novel is a must-read, as controversial author Rajaa, lifts the veil of the private life of everyday Saudi women, exposing the plights and hypocrisies of conservative Saudi culture. The best part of reading the novel is guessing who the e-narrator might be.

Hoda Bakarat is a popular Lebanese author, her most popular novel is The Stone of Laughter. It was published in 1990 during the Civil War in Lebanon. The stone of laughter explores the ramifications or repercussions of war, and its psychological effect on everyday citizens. It also explores themes of sexuality. The story takes place during the 1982 Israeli -Lebanese conflict, and it details the everyday reactions of the main character Khalil. His character goes through a development, as we see a timeline of his life, and how he changes. The novel shows the resilience of Lebanese people, where right after a bomb raid they would go grocery shopping. However, Khalil finds it difficult to get back up, and tries his best to cope.

He struggles in comprehending whether he is gay or he is admiring other men, this yearning of wanting to be what would be considered a proper man, like Youssef. He finds himself wanting to impress Youssef, wanting to be constantly near him. Youssef becomes his way of survival, his oxygen mask. To prove his manliness, he rapes a woman and laughs like a man. As the city of Beirut crumples, deteriorates, so does Khalil, as the war sucks the morality out of him and all the goodness that resides within him.