Books from Kuwait
15 popular kuwaiti 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 Kuwait.
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.
Against the Loveless World : A Novel by Susan Abulhawa EN
Description:
From the internationally bestselling author of the “terrifically affecting” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) Mornings in Jenin, a sweeping and lyrical novel that follows a young Palestinian refugee as she slowly becomes radicalized while searching for a better life for her family throughout the Middle East, for readers of international literary bestsellers including Washington Black, My Sister, The Serial Killer, and Her Body and Other Parties. As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely k... continue
2.
All That I Want to Forget : A Novel by Bothayna Al-Essa EN
Description:
A courageous young woman from the Gulf must overcome conservatism and oppression from her own family to live and love as she chooses Fatima loves poetry and wants to study French literature—both of which are anathema to her strict and conservative much older brother, Saqr. While living under his roof, Fatima’s hopes and dreams are scrutinized, mocked, and slowly crushed as she is forced into his narrow vision of the right path. Then Fatima meets Isam, a poet like her; they email love letters to each other and meet in secret. Saqr, however, has other ideas: she is married off to Faris, a comple... continue
3.
An Unlasting Home : A Novel by Mai Al-Nakib EN
Description:
The debut novel from an award-winning short story writer: a multigenerational saga spanning Lebanon, Iraq, India, the United States, and Kuwait that brings to life the triumphs and failures of three generations of Arab women. In 2013, Sara is a philosophy professor at Kuwait University, having returned to Kuwait from Berkeley in the wake of her mother's sudden death eleven years earlier. Her main companions are her grandmother's talking parrot, Bebe Mitu; the family cook, Aasif; and Maria, her childhood ayah and the one person who has always been there for her. Sara's relationship with Kuwait ... continue
4.
Before the Queen Falls Asleep by Huzama Habayeb EN
Description:
Born a girl to parents who expected a boy, Jihad grows up treated like the eldest son, wearing boy's clothing and sharing the financial burden of head of the household with her father. Now middle-aged, each night Jihad tells her daughter a story from her life. As Malika prepares to leave home to attend university abroad, her mother revisits the past of their Palestinian family, tenderly describing their life in exile in Kuwait and her own experiences of love and loss as she grows up. Huzama Habayeb weaves a richly observed and affectionate portrait of a Palestinian family displaced from their ... continue
5.
Guapa by Saleem Haddad EN
Description:
Rasa works as an interpreter for Western journalists by day and divides his nights between the Guapa, an underground LGBTQ nightclub, and his secret lover Taymour. When Rasa's grandmother finds them in bed together on the eve of Taymour's wedding day, all hell breaks loose. That same day Rasa learns his best friend, the famous drag queen Majid, has been arrested. Unable to go home, afraid for Majid's fate, and heartbroken by Taymour's double life, Rasa's fragile balance collapses amidst the regime's repression and the rise of the hard-line Islamist movement.
6.
Mama Hissa's Mice by Saud Alsanousi EN
Description:
From the winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction comes an apocalyptic and caustically funny novel about the power of friendship in a war-torn world that NPR calls "rich and resonant." Growing up together in the Surra section of central Kuwait, Katkout, Fahd, and Sadiq share neither ethnic origin nor religious denomination--only friendship and a rage against the unconscionable sectarian divide turning their lives into war-zone rubble. To lay bare the ugly truths, they form the protest group Fuada's Kids. Their righteous transgressions have made them targets of both Sunni and Shi'a ... continue
7.
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa EN
Description:
Palestine, 1948. A mother clutches her six-month-old son as Israeli soldiers march through the village of Ein Hod. In a split second, her son is snatched from her arms and the fate of the Abulheja family is changed forever. Forced into a refugee camp in Jenin and exiled from the ancient village that is their lifeblood, the family struggles to rebuild their world. Their stories unfold through the eyes of the youngest sibling, Amal, the daughter born in the camp who will eventually find herself alone in the United States; the eldest son who loses everything in the struggle for freedom; the stole... continue
8.
Pearling in the Arabian Gulf : A Kuwaiti Memoir by Sayf Marzūq Shamlān EN
Description:
Born in Kuwait in 1926, into a distinguished Kuwaiti family of pearl merchants and seafarers, Saif Marzooq al- Shamlan describes the final generation of the pearling industry from 1900 to the slump of the 1930s, when the development of the Japanese cultured pearl led to economic disaster for the people of the Gulf.
9.
The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsanousi EN
Description:
Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction Josephine escapes poverty by coming to Kuwait from the Philippines to work as a maid, where she meets Rashid, an idealistic only son with literary aspirations. Josephine, with all the wide-eyed naivety of youth, believes she has found true love. But when she becomes pregnant, and with the rumble of war growing ever louder, Rashid bows to family and social pressure, and sends her back home with her baby son, José. Brought up struggling with his dual identity, José clings to the hope of returning to his father's country when he is eighteen. He... continue
10.
The book censor’s library by Bothayna Al-Essa EN
Description:
"The new book censor hasn't slept soundly in weeks. By day he combs through manuscripts at a government office, looking for anything that would make a book unfit to publish--allusions to queerness, unapproved religions, any mention of life before the Revolution. By night the characters of literary classics crowd his dreams, and pilfered novels pile up in the house he shares with his wife and daughter. As the siren song of forbidden reading continues to beckon, he descends into a netherworld of resistance fighters, undercover booksellers, and outlaw librarians trying to save their history and c... continue