October 2026

When the streets of Paris stir memories of Beirut

From the student protests in France in 2026 to the demonstrations in Beirut in the 1970s and the uprising of 2019: reflections by a Lebanese writer living in Paris on youth, protest and the homeland we dream of.

The Hyenas’ Feast

A short story from Iraq

Love and Class Consciousness

Sugar from sour apple rings stuck to her fingers: Ruth Maria Thomas’s "Die zweitgrößte Liebe" tells the story of Michelle, of counting and of class – in a voice more original than that of Didier Eribon or Édouard Louis.

"We Carry Culture in Our Bodies"

Zimbabwean writer Mbizo Chirasha talks to Tehran-based writer and artist Saharnaz Omran about writing, loss, political violence, unstable memory and life under the Islamic Republic

When Love Crosses the Line of Faith

The Conflict Between Religion and Love in Bassam Shams Al-Deen's "Hafwah", a Novel About Yemen's Jews

On the Futility of Words

Tash Aws’s masterfully crafted novel "The South" tells the story of Jay, 16, who spends his holiday on his family’s farm in Malaysia. What begins as a coming-of-age story ultimately departs deliberately from that genre.

The Lives of Indigenous People in Montreal

In “Ninan – Tiohtiá:ke, Montreal,” Michel Jean tells the story of an outcast homeless man’s arduous journey back into society, and shows how the role of those who trust you unconditionally is so crucial

An Afro-Cuban voice that envisions new horizons

Maielis González Fernández places the Black and Caribbean experience at the heart of a work of science fiction that challenges decades of exclusion and reimagines the future

The Voice of the Arab Renaissance

Even twenty years after his death, Nagib Mahfouz’s literary and philosophical legacy has lost none of its relevance

Here I stand, and I cannot do otherwise

Hamza Abu Howidy, a Palestinian, is committed to peace between Israel and Palestine. His book "Muscheln am Strand von Gaza" (Shells on the beach in Gaza) describes his life under Hamas’s reign of terror.