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The Sand Fish
Maha Gargash
Novel, 2009
A novel of 1950s Dubai, before the oil boom, following a young woman's constrained life and her push against tradition.
Books set in the United Arab Emirates
Four books by writers from the United Arab Emirates, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with The Sand Fish and That Other Me.
About the literature of the United Arab Emirates
Emirati literature has long lived in spoken Nabati poetry, and few Emirati books are available in English. Nabati is vernacular verse from the Bedouin tradition of the Arabian Peninsula, and fiction arrived only in the later twentieth century, as the country was transformed by oil. The books that have reached English trace that change.
Mohammad Al Murr's Dubai Tales, short and wry, catches ordinary Emiratis adjusting to a city changing at speed. Maha Gargash, who writes in English, set The Sand Fish in the 1950s, before oil, following a young woman who resists a life chosen for her. Reem Al Kamali's Rose's Diaries moves to 1960s Dubai, where a young woman barred from studying abroad pours her frustrations into diaries she throws into the Creek. Gargash's That Other Me reaches the 1990s, as secrets tear apart a wealthy Emirati family.
By writers from the United Arab Emirates
That Other Me
Maha Gargash
Novel, 2016
Secrets and betrayals tear apart a wealthy Emirati family in 1990s Dubai.
Dubai Tales
Mohammad Al Murr
Short stories, 1990. Translated from Arabic by Peter Clark
Short, wry stories about ordinary Emiratis coping as Dubai changes fast.
Rose's Diaries
Reem Al Kamali
Novel, 2021. Translated from Arabic by Chip Rossetti
In 1960s Dubai, a young woman kept from studying abroad pours her frustrations into diaries she throws into the Creek.
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