Books from Jordan
13 popular jordanian books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Asia Challenge" were written by authors from Jordan.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
1.
Description:
Turki al-Hamad's explosive novel Adama became an unlikely bestseller in the Middle East, selling more than 20,000 copies despite being officially banned in several countries, including the author's native Saudi Arabia. A compelling coming-of-age story, it also offers a rare and stunning inside look at the hidden roots of dissent in the modern Arab world. In his tranquil middle-class neighbourhood, eighteen-year-old Hisham doesn't quite fit in. He's a budding philosopher who spends his days reading banned books and developing his political ideals. His Saudi Arabia is a nation embroiled in inter... continue
2.
Am Ende bleiben die Zedern : Roman by Pierre Jarawan DE
Description:
Samir ist auf einer Reise, die Gegenwart und Vergangenheit verbinden soll: Er will endlich die Wahrheit über seinen Vater erfahren, der die Familie vor zwanzig Jahren ohne eine Nachricht verlassen hat. Mit einem rätselhaften Dia und den Erinnerungen an die Geschichten seines Vaters im Gepäck macht der junge Mann sich in den Libanon auf, das Geheimnis zu lüften. Seine Suche führt ihn durch ein noch immer gespaltenes Land, und schon bald scheint Samir nicht mehr nur den Spuren des Vaters zu folgen. Vielmehr ist es, als seien die Figuren aus dessen Geschichten real geworden. Sie bringen Samir ein... continue
3.
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine EN
Description:
An obsessive introvert in Beirut, eschewed by her family and neighbors for her divorced status and lack of religious reverence, quietly translates favorite books into Arabic while struggling with her aging body until an unthinkable disaster threatens what little life remains to her. By the best-selling author of The Hakawati. 20,000 first printing.
4.
Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif, Abd al-Raḥmān Munīf EN
Description:
Banned in Saudia Arabia, this is a blistering look at Arab and American hypocrisy following the discovery of oil in a poor oasis community. "From the Trade Paperback edition.
5.
Description:
In her coming-of-age memoir, refugee advocate Luma Mufleh writes of her tumultuous journey to reconcile her identity as a gay Muslim woman and a proud Arab-turned-American refugee. With no word for “gay” in Arabic, Luma may not have known what to call the feelings she had growing up in Jordan during the 1980s, but she knew well enough to keep them secret. It was clear that not only would her family have trouble accepting her, but trapped in a conservative religious society, she could’ve also been killed if anyone discovered her sexuality. Luma spent her teenage years increasingly desperate to ... continue
6.
Honor Lost : Love and Death in Modern-day Jordan by Norma Khouri EN
Description:
Dalia was a young, beautiful, Arabian Muslim living with her family in Amman, Jordan. This text gives a harrowing account by a Jordanian woman of the honour-killing of her lifelong friend at the hands of her own father, after she fell in love with a young Catholic man.
7.
The cry of the dove by Fadia Faqir EN
Description:
Left pregnant after an illicit love affair, Saalma, a young Bedouin woman from Hima in the Levant flees her people to escape the honor killing waiting for her at the hands of her tribe and seeks asylum in England. Original.
8.
The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine EN
Description:
“Here is absolute beauty. One of the finest novels I’ve read in years.” —Junot Diaz An astonishingly inventive, wonderfully exuberant novel that takes us from the shimmering dunes of ancient Egypt to the war-torn streets of twenty-first-century Lebanon. In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father’s deathbed. The city is a shell of the Beirut Osama remembers, but he and his friends and family take solace in the things that have always sustained them: gossip, laughter, and, above all, stories. Osama’s grandfather was a hakawati, or storyte... continue
9.
The Monotonous Chaos of Existence by Hisham Bustani EN
Description:
The stories within Hisham Bustani's The Monotonous Chaos of Existence explore the turbulent transformation in contemporary Arab societies. With a deft and poetic touch, Bustani examines the interpersonal with a global lens, connects the seemingly contradictory, and delves into the ways that international conflict can tear open the individuals that populate his world-all while pushing the narrative form into new and unexpected terrain.
10.
Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah EN
Description:
This comi-tragic fictional-factual saga takes place in the environs of Jerusalem, from late Ottoman times to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. A vivid picture of Palestinian villagers' preoccupations and aspirations--their ties to their land, to their animals, and to one another. Relives the realities of the Palestinian village in the early twentieth century, Zionist colonization and its impact on Arab rural life, the trauma that accompanied the British mandate and its aftermath, the Palestinians' struggle to maintain the autonomy and dignity they had known for centuries on end... continue