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The Book of Sana'a : A City in Short Fiction
Edited by Laura Kasinof
A man accidentally swept along by a street protest finds himself tasered, arrested and subjected to days of torture by the police, simply because he tried to cross the road...
Following the disappearance of her father, a teenage girl is forced to support her impoverished family by disguising herself as a boy, losing both her childhood and her identity in the process...
On the day after a perfect wedding, a groom can’t work out why all his relatives are gathered outside his bedroom dressed in mourning clothes...
The stories in this anthology demonstrate the myriad ways that war and oppressive regimes have touched the lives of ordinary Yemenis. Whether it’s the decade-long war between the Ansarallah (a.k.a. ‘Houthi’) movement and the Yemeni government (played out as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia), or the oppression of President Saleh’s previous regime, or earlier civil conflicts... No one is safe. Each character learns to navigate through trauma, finding redemption in their own ingenuity as well as in a deep-rooted appreciation for what remains a beautiful, inspiring city.
Translated Maisa Almanasreh, Raph Cormack, Basma Ghalayini, Mohammed Ghalayini, Christiaan James, Laura Kasinof, Talei Lakeland, Andrew Leber, Majd Abu Shawish, and Katherine Van de Vate.
A man accidentally swept along by a street protest finds himself tasered, arrested and subjected to days of torture by the police, simply because he tried to cross the road...
Following the disappearance of her father, a teenage girl is forced to support her impoverished family by disguising herself as a boy, losing both her childhood and her identity in the process...
On the day after a perfect wedding, a groom can’t work out why all his relatives are gathered outside his bedroom dressed in mourning clothes...
The stories in this anthology demonstrate the myriad ways that war and oppressive regimes have touched the lives of ordinary Yemenis. Whether it’s the decade-long war between the Ansarallah (a.k.a. ‘Houthi’) movement and the Yemeni government (played out as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia), or the oppression of President Saleh’s previous regime, or earlier civil conflicts... No one is safe. Each character learns to navigate through trauma, finding redemption in their own ingenuity as well as in a deep-rooted appreciation for what remains a beautiful, inspiring city.
Translated Maisa Almanasreh, Raph Cormack, Basma Ghalayini, Mohammed Ghalayini, Christiaan James, Laura Kasinof, Talei Lakeland, Andrew Leber, Majd Abu Shawish, and Katherine Van de Vate.
104 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 16, 2025
96 short pages that defy censorship and isolation to reflect Sana’a's creativity, sense of humor, resilience, and enduring humanity.
full review here
https://arablit.org/2025/06/11/the-bo...
full review here
https://arablit.org/2025/06/11/the-bo...
October 18, 2025
Stories from Sana'a
This is part of a series, with new city titles regularly added to the collection. The publisher brings together short stories written by authors who are native to the city in question, and then beautifully arranges translations by a selection of skilled translators. The series is published by Comma Press, a not-for-profit publisher and development agency specialising in short fiction from the UK and beyond.
There are already several titles dotted around England, including Newcastle and Liverpool, and further afield there are titles set in Prague, Cairo, Beijing, Coventry and particularly poignant at the moment, given the current situation, in Gaza.
Sana’a in Yemen occasionally appears on the news amidst rocket attacks launched by Houthi rebels and countered by other countries. I cannot say I have really given much thought to the city but in this collection of short stories, it comes across as a city with a fantastic old heart (a UNESCO World Heritage site, no less), its history stretching back a couple of millennia.
Editor Laura Kasinof introduces the city, describing it as unlike any other in the Arab world, sitting at 2,200 M above sea level and with a pronounced rainy season. She describes the buildings constructed of rammed clay, gypsum and accented with stained glass windows as a confection of “Gingerbread Houses“.
A virtually total crackdown on the freedom to write and express views has occurred since the Houthis took over and therefore, as the editor says, it is remarkable this collection of essays has even been published.
In the first story a young girl observes the trauma of the disappearance of their father, his whereabouts unknown. The loss to the family is unfathomable and devastating. Their mother initiates a huge change in the course of their lives and much is asked of the young daughter.
Another story is set in March 2011, when rebellion is in the air. The protagonist heads out, his mother affixing an amulet to his wrist for safety but the authorities are out for revenge. And the last story is short and sweet, full of trauma, a fitting end to the collection.
There is inventiveness amongst the narratives and a real sense of unabating and senseless violence pervading the country. This has been a good introduction for me to a city that has never really crossed my radar, other than in the news.
We were asked not to use the name of one of the contributors and were given a pseudonym, should we have chosen to mention that specific author. This, of course, is a sobering that that level of safety is necessary in order to avoid retribution.
This is part of a series, with new city titles regularly added to the collection. The publisher brings together short stories written by authors who are native to the city in question, and then beautifully arranges translations by a selection of skilled translators. The series is published by Comma Press, a not-for-profit publisher and development agency specialising in short fiction from the UK and beyond.
There are already several titles dotted around England, including Newcastle and Liverpool, and further afield there are titles set in Prague, Cairo, Beijing, Coventry and particularly poignant at the moment, given the current situation, in Gaza.
Sana’a in Yemen occasionally appears on the news amidst rocket attacks launched by Houthi rebels and countered by other countries. I cannot say I have really given much thought to the city but in this collection of short stories, it comes across as a city with a fantastic old heart (a UNESCO World Heritage site, no less), its history stretching back a couple of millennia.
Editor Laura Kasinof introduces the city, describing it as unlike any other in the Arab world, sitting at 2,200 M above sea level and with a pronounced rainy season. She describes the buildings constructed of rammed clay, gypsum and accented with stained glass windows as a confection of “Gingerbread Houses“.
A virtually total crackdown on the freedom to write and express views has occurred since the Houthis took over and therefore, as the editor says, it is remarkable this collection of essays has even been published.
In the first story a young girl observes the trauma of the disappearance of their father, his whereabouts unknown. The loss to the family is unfathomable and devastating. Their mother initiates a huge change in the course of their lives and much is asked of the young daughter.
Another story is set in March 2011, when rebellion is in the air. The protagonist heads out, his mother affixing an amulet to his wrist for safety but the authorities are out for revenge. And the last story is short and sweet, full of trauma, a fitting end to the collection.
There is inventiveness amongst the narratives and a real sense of unabating and senseless violence pervading the country. This has been a good introduction for me to a city that has never really crossed my radar, other than in the news.
We were asked not to use the name of one of the contributors and were given a pseudonym, should we have chosen to mention that specific author. This, of course, is a sobering that that level of safety is necessary in order to avoid retribution.
February 9, 2026
I’ve finished this book in no time. Through the selected short stories it’s easy to learn a lot about Sana’a in a cultural and political level. The introduction revealed a lot about the history and internal turmoil of Yemen.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews