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Oman

The covers of the six books featured in the Watchlist in a 2x3 grid: Ugliness, Honey Hunger, Adam...

The Watchlist: February 2025

By Tobias Carroll

New fiction and poetry from Hong Kong, Oman, Portugal, and more: Tobias Carroll recommends this month’s standout reads in translation.

A fox standing in snow is facing the camera

Fox by Chrisbkes is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Pityriasis Rosea

By Jokha Alharthi

It’s because all we’ve been talking about these evenings are the old legends, and that’s what brought the fox here.

Translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth

Unsettled: New Writing from Oman

By Ghayde Ghraowi & Ahd Niazy

Unsettlement, a lack of centeredness, manifests itself throughout each of the works in this issue.

Like Any Messiah Taken Unaware by Death

By Aisha al-Saifi

Death is colder than a cup of water on my body, and/ Fonder to me than sand

Translated from Arabic by Robin Moger

Multilingual

Electronic Thorns

By Reem Allawati

Its scent is like infirmity, / This soul

Translated from Arabic by Ghayde Ghraowi

Multilingual

Repentance

By Abdulaziz al-Omairi

I huddled in sorrow beside the warmth of my wound.

Translated from Arabic by Rawad Wehbe

Multilingual

A bitter orange tree

Copyright © Jared Preston / CC BY-SA 3.0

Bitter Orange

By Jokha Alharthi

In this excerpt from 2019 Man Booker International winner Jokha Alharthi's novel Bitter Orange Tree, an Omani student dredges up her grandmother’s troubled past and grows entangled in the personal dilemmas of her fellow international students.

Translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth

The Shadow of Hermaphroditus

By Badriya al-Badri

Nothing can force me to go on living beneath Hermaphroditus’s long shadow—one half wearing the other, half a woman leaning on half a man.

Translated from Arabic by Ghayde Ghraowi

Multilingual