Books set in Kuwait (12)
Find more books set in Kuwait by genre:
Historical fiction
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Fantasy
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Domestic fiction
Psychology
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Short story
1.
All That I Want to Forget : A Novel by Bothayna Al-Essa EN
KuwaitDescription:
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
2.
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
3.
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.
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
6.
Country: North America / 
United States of America
United States of America
Description:
"Reading Salt Houses is like having your coffee grounds read: cosmic, foreboding and titillating all at once. In this magnificent debut, Alyan's powerful and poetic voice guides us into the dark recesses of history and leads us right up to the present tensions between East & West, the modern & ancestral, the hopeless and the hopeful." --Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan's Inheritance On the eve of her daughter Alia's wedding, Salma reads the girl's future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel, and luck. While she chooses to keep her... continue
7.
Sámar by Tayeb Alrefai ES
Description:
¿Puede la literatura servirse de los mismos resortes que nos causa quedar expuestos a los demás? En las relaciones por las que apostamos, aquello que ocurre ¿es un espacio real o una realidad cambiante que nuestra mente se empeña en fabricar? ¿Leemos solo lo que nos interesa? Porque los sentimientos a veces se parecen demasiado a una ficción en estado puro, parte de la originalidad de esta obra se cifra en conseguir establecer esa analogía entre el arte de contar y las coordenadas anímicas que nos devoran. […]
8.
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
9.
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
10.
The Hidden Light of Objects by Mai Al-Nakib EN
Description:
A young girl, renamed Amerika in honour of the US role in the liberation of Kuwait, finds her name has become a barometer of her country’s growing hostility towards the West. A self-conscious Palestinian teenager is drawn into a botched suicide bombing by two belligerent classmates. A middle-aged man dying from cancer looks back on his extramarital affairs and the abiding forgiveness of his wife. A Kuwaiti woman returns to her family after being held captive in Iraq for a decade. The headlines tell of war, unrest and religious clashes. But if you look beyond them you may see life in the Middle... continue