Set against the backdrop of Libya’s turbulent political landscape, from the 1969 revolution to the aftermath of the 2011 revolution, this excerpt from The Colonel by Kawthar Al-Jehmi explores the complexities of survival, loyalty, and identity.

As Italy invades Tripoli in 1919, a young girl witnesses the beginnings of war in this excerpt from Aisha Ibrahim’s Box of Sand, longlisted for the 2023 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Russian refugee Anya struggles with the trauma of immigrant life in Norway in this excerpt from Yulia Yakovleva’s Abusive Motherland.

After surviving a fatal accident, a young woman with OCD has repeated encounters with a shadowlike presence in Kim Heejin’s “By Any Other Name.”

In a world where housing lotteries dictate destinies and mold grows faster than hope, a woman finds herself calculating the cost of survival—not in money, but in silence, compromise, and quiet defiance.