Stories From the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction

by Hanif Kureishi (Contributor), Jordan Elgrably (Editor)

Short stories from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North African origins, a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life in the global Arab/Muslim world. For much of the 20th and 21st centuries, the region known as the Greater Middle East has faced colonization, war and occupation, while its people have been misrepresented and its literature relegated to oblivion by a Eurocentric culture industry.  Emigrant communities are also frequently misunderstood, even as they attempt to adapt and melt into the fabric of new countries and languages. Now, in this potent anthology with more than its share of surprises, over two dozen writers with roots in the region, men and women, both native and in diaspora, insiders and outsiders, assert their narrative power. Moving from the margins to the markaz , or “center” — a word and a concept shared among languages of the region, including Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, and Urdu — they occupy and create a collective worldview. Selected from among a wave of new fiction published in The Markaz Review between 2020 and 2023, this “best of” collection features authors with roots in Egypt, Greece, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Pakistan and Sudan, to name just some places. In “Raise Your Head High,” Khartoum-born novelist Leila Aboulela writes of a rift between sisters that may only be healed by their solidarity during the Arab Spring.; in “Counter Strike,” MK Harb tells a queer coming-of-age story set in Lebanon; in “Eleazar,” Karim Kattan crafts a tale about a Palestinian family that mysteriously disintegrates. These stories, and these authors, will be new to many readers, now collected and published in English for the first time. Contributors include : Salar Abdoh, Leila Aboulela, Farah Ahamed, Omar El Akkad, Sarah AlKahly-Mills, Nektaria Anastasiadou, Amany Kamal Eldin, Jordan Elgrably, May Haddad, Malu Halasa, Mohamad Khalil (MK) Harb, Alireza Iranmehr, Karim Kattan, Hanif Kureshi, Sahar Mustafah, Ahmed Naji, Mai Al-Nakib and Natasha Tynes.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2024

About the author

Hanif Kureishi is the author of novels (including The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy), story collections (Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day, The Body), plays (including Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me), and screenplays (including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus). Among his other publications are the collection of essays Dreaming and Scheming, The Word and the Bomb and the memoir My Ear at His Heart.

Kureishi was born in London to a Pakistani father and an English mother. His father, Rafiushan, was from a wealthy Madras family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947. He came to Britain to study law but soon abandoned his studies. After meeting and marrying Kureishi’s mother Audrey, Rafiushan settled in Bromley, where Kureishi was born, and worked at the Pakistan Embassy.

Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School where David Bowie had also been a pupil and after taking his A levels at a local sixth form college, he spent a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University before dropping out. Later he attended King’s College London and took a degree in philosophy. In 1985 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980’s London for a film directed by Stephen Frears. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.

His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. The next year, 1991, saw the release of the feature film entitled London Kills Me; a film written and directed Kureishi.

His novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created certain controversy as Kureishi himself had recently left his wife and two young sons. It is assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival: a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes. The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.

Kureishi is married and has a pair of twins and a younger son.

Reviews

[Mustafa Marwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and diverse collective that adds weight to any library.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love any collection of stories and this was a splendid one highlighting voices throughout the global Arab/Muslim world. In the best way possible—some of the shorter stories had me desperately wanting them to go on and find out more, while others had me clenching my jaw, wishing to know less but reading forward nevertheless. I marked my favorites in my book activity updates with the authors names, and you should at least check those out!

Additionally: I wish the formatting in the beginning describing a blurb for each story was done differently, more broken up and less of a big run on paragraph, and if y’all wanna find some great recommendation for other things to read, the “About the Writers and Translators” is pack full of these authors other works!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection. It was refreshing to read one before bed at night and start clean the next day.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

25 reminders of the beauty, depravity, and mystery of humanity, told by those from the center of the world.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wide range of stories here, and probably most readers will find some that they like a lot and others not so much.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

My short story collection for March. Favorites include:
The Burden of Inheritance
Eleazar
The Icarist
The Devil's Waiting List

[Daphyne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I say this with every book of short stories but it’s true. Some of these are great and others are meh. Some contain material that was a bit too vulgar for me and others were fine. I love being reminded through stories like this that while our traditions and cultures are different, the human experience is universal. We all share a need for home, we all want love and acceptance, and we all experience loss.