Whether or not you’re
fasting this Ramadan, consider this an opportunity to explore unfamiliar
worlds.
Pick up a book by one of these talented Muslim writers who’ve been
making a serious mark literary world. They’re writing memoirs
and science fiction, graphic novels and
poetry — anything you feel like reading, really.
No
one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has
plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of
her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a
strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with
the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.
In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a riveting dystopian
world, a thrilling superhero story, and an unforgettable heroine.
In
an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker
shields his clients—dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched
groups—from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by
Alif—the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and a convenient handle to
hide behind. The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a
prince chosen by her parents, and his computer has just been breached by
the state’s electronic security force, putting his clients and his own
neck on the line.
Then it turns out his lover’s new
fiancé is the “Hand of God,” as they call the head of state security,
and his henchmen come after Alif, driving him underground. When Alif
discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which
both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information
technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or
death, aided by forces seen and unseen.
With shades of Neal Stephenson, Philip Pullman, and The Thousand and One
Nights, Alif the Unseen is a tour de force debut—a sophisticated
melting pot of ideas, philosophy, technology, and spirituality smuggled
inside an irresistible page-turner.
Based
on ancient legends and written with interfaith sensitivity, this
collection of new and original Muslim fables sparkles with inspiration,
adventure, humor, and even romance. Qur’anic scriptures and Biblical
references solidify the spiritual truths of these lively tales, which
teach universal values such as patience, morals, ethics, and courtesy.
Muslim
readers find their own beliefs clarified and reinforced, while those of
another (or of no organized) faith learn something about Islam in a
gentle, non-proselytizing manner. Christian and Jewish readers
experience their faiths not as entities separate from Islam, but as
integral parts of the great circle encompassed by the Islamic ideal of
universal peace. All readers discover that, although the stories are set
in times and places far different from our own, the messages are still
relevant in today’s world. With its inspiring text and 46 vibrant
watercolor illustrations, Where the Ghost Camel Grins is a spiritual
treasure for all faiths and ages.
In
this stunning work of historical fiction, Laila Lalami brings us the
imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America—a Moroccan slave
whose testimony was left out of the official record.
In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez sailed from the port of
Sanlúcar de Barrameda with a crew of six hundred men and nearly a
hundred horses. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the
United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as
wealthy and famous as Hernán Cortés.
But from the moment
the Narváez expedition landed in Florida, it faced peril—navigational
errors, disease, starvation, as well as resistance from indigenous
tribes. Within a year there were only four survivors: the expedition’s
treasurer, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca; a Spanish nobleman named Alonso
del Castillo Maldonado; a young explorer named Andrés Dorantes de
Carranza; and Dorantes’s Moroccan slave, Mustafa al-Zamori, whom the
three Spaniards called Estebanico. These four survivors would go on to
make a journey across America that would transform them from proud
conquis-tadores to humble servants, from fearful outcasts to faith
healers.
Muslim
feminist and social reformer Rokeya Hossain brings us the riveting tale
of young girl Sultana who awakes in Ladyland where men are confined
indoors and women have taken over the public sphere, ending a war
nonviolently and restoring health and beauty to the world. This witty
story, in which science fiction meets feminism, will have you smiling at
the Hossain’s gorgeous subtle writing and repeating the words of her
husband, “A splendid revenge!”
