100 Best Middle East Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini

5.0

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal

Recommended by Timothy Ferriss, Emma Watson, James Altucher, and 1 others.

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Excellent novel. [source]

Ann Miura-Ko

I would encourage people to read it because it gives you a sense of Afghanistan’s incredible history and the role women have played within that history [source]

2

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini and Simon & Schuster Audi

5.0

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacri

Recommended by James Altucher, Ann Miura-Ko, Magda Marcu, and 1 others.

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Excellent novel. [source]

Ann Miura-Ko

Ann Miura-Ko recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

Magda Marcu

I’m currently reading “The Kite Runner”. I never have expectations from books, I let them surprise me as I get into the story. Learning about characteristics of different cultures, in this case the Afghan one, it’s one aspect I am interested in. [source]

3

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and The Creation of the Modern Middle East

David Fromkin

4.8

Preview Summary

The critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling account of how the modern Middle East came into being after World War I, and why it is in upheaval today

In our time the Middle East has proven a battleground of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and dynasties. All of these conflicts, including the hostilities between Arabs and Israelis that have flared yet again, come down, in a sense, t

4

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

Malala Yousafzai

4.7

Preview Summary

I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while ri

Recommended by Adrienne Kisner.

Adrienne Kisner

Malala’s story of triumph is a battle cry for girls (and boys) everywhere. Education can set you free. [source]

5

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis, #1)

Marjane Satrapi

4.7

A New York Times Notable Book
A Time Magazine “Best Comix of the Year”
A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times Best-seller

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthro

Recommended by Pooneh Ghoddoosi.

Pooneh Ghoddoosi

I read the book and it was great, but more people saw the film because it was nominated for an Academy Award. And after seeing the movie, so many people I knew came up to me and told me that they thought it was exactly the story of my life. And not just me, but most of my Iranian friends had the same feeling of “Oh God, that could have been me, I could have written that book – it could have been the story of my life and my family, and that’s exactly how I felt in high school.” [source]

6

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Lawrence Wright

4.6

A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany

Recommended by Audrey Kurth Cronin, Bryan Callen, Lloyd Gardner, and 5 others.

Audrey Kurth Cronin

Reading this one book gives you an excellent grasp of the human story and the context from which al-Qaeda emerged. [source]

Bryan Callen

I love this author. [source]

Lloyd Gardner

Wright looks at the linkage between the Egyptian Jihad and Al-Qaeda. It is a worthwhile book to read to try to understand the whole problem. [source]

7

The Complete Persepolis (Persepolis, #1-4)

Marjane Satrapi

4.6

Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir.

Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the tria

Recommended by Emma Watson.

8

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Azar Nafisi

4.5

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's l

Recommended by Pooneh Ghoddoosi.

Pooneh Ghoddoosi

Yes she was. [source]

9

Orientalism

Edward Said

4.5

Preview Summary

More than three decades after its first publication, Edward Said's groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East has become a modern classic.

In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of pow

Cover unavailable

10

And the Mountains Echoed

Khaled Hosseini

4.5

So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one...Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and stepmother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters. To Abdullah, Pari - as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named - is everything. More

11

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

Stephen Kinzer

4.5

An American Coup & the Roots of Middle East Terror
Half a century ago, the United States overthrew a Middle Eastern government for the first time. The victim was Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran. Although the coup seemed a success at first, today it serves as a chilling lesson about the dangers of foreign intervention.In this book, veteran New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer gives the first full account of this fateful operation. His account is centered around an hour-by-hour reconstruction of the events of August 1953, and concludes with an assessment of the coup's "haunting and terrible legacy."Operation Ajax, as the plot was code-named, reshaped the history of Iran, the Middle East, and the world. It restored Mohammad Reza Shah to the Peacock Throne, allowing him to impose a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The Islamic Revolution, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection."It is not far-fetched," Kinzer asserts in this book, "to draw a line from Operation Ajax through the Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York."Drawing on research in the United States and Iran, and using material from a long-secret CIA report, Kinzer explains the background of the coup and tells how it was carried out. It is a cloak-and-dagger story of spies, saboteurs, and secret agents. There are accounts of bribes, staged riots, suitcases full of cash, and midnight meetings between the Shah and CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt, who was smuggled in and out of the royal palace under a blanket in the back seat of a car. Roosevelt,the grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, was a real-life James Bond in an era when CIA agents operated mainly by their wits. After his first coup attempt failed, he organized a second attempt that succeeded three days later.The colorful cast of characters includes the terrified young Shah, who fled his country at the first sign of trouble; General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, father of the Gulf War commander and the radio voice of "Gang Busters," who flew to Tehran on a secret mission that helped set the coup in motion; and the fiery Prime Minister Mossadegh, who outraged the West by nationalizing the immensely profitable Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The British, outraged by the seizure of their oil company, persuaded President Dwight Eisenhower that Mossadegh was leading Iran toward Communism. Eisenhower and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain became the coup's main sponsors.Brimming with insights into Middle Eastern history and American foreign policy, this book is an eye-opening look at an event whose unintended consequences--Islamic revolution and violent anti-Americanism--have shaped the modern world. As the United States assumes an ever-widening role in the Middle East, it is essential reading.

Recommended by Chris Abbott and Demetri Sevastopulo.

Chris Abbott

Kinzer gives a good and quick introduction to Iranian history and its relationships with America and Britain. [source]

Demetri Sevastopulo

On a totally different topic, this book by @stephenkinzer is a great look at US & UK relations with #Iran before the revolution. Lots of interesting similarities with the situation today. https://t.co/rlv8Ip0Kjn https://t.co/gz7InQkMk4 [source]

12

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time

Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin

4.5

The inspiring account of one man's campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia.

In April 2011, the CBS documentary "60 Minutes" called into question Greg Mortenson's work. The program alleged several inaccuracies in Three Cups of Tea, and its sequel, Stones into Schools, as well as financial improprieties in the operation of Mortenson's Central Asia In

Recommended by Gretchen Peters, Jennifer Steil, and Nicholas Kristof.

Gretchen Peters

I went to a refugee camp after 9/11 where people were living in tents and boiling grass to make tea and at least one family offered to let me sleep in their tent. [source]

Jennifer Steil

Greg Mortenson has changed literally thousands and thousands of lives. [source]

Nicholas Kristof

I think Greg does a very good job of providing a more nuanced portrait of the Islamic world and what is possible in it. [source]

13

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

4.4

Preview Summary

Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. What starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treas

Recommended by Tony Robbins, Anthony Robbins, Brené Brown, and 27 others.

Brené Brown

There's a great quote in this book: When you're on the right path the universe conspires to help you! [source]

Daniel Ek

It was fascinating to talk to the author about how this book came to be such a hit—he never backed down, and he allowed people to read it for free in order to then boost sales—much like how Spotify’s freemium model was perceived in the early days. [source]

Eric Ripert

Speaks of everyone having an ultimate goal in life, but most of us are too afraid to pursue it. The encouragement to fulfill your dreams is very inspirational! [source]

14

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

Sandy Tolan

4.4

In 1967, Bashir Al-Khayri, a Palestinian twenty-five-year-old, journeyed to Israel, with the goal of seeing the beloved old stone house, with the lemon tree behind it, that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Ashkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose family fled Europe for Israel following th

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15

Mornings in Jenin

Susan Abulhawa

4.4

A heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel that could do for Palestine what The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan.

Forcibly removed from the ancient village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejas are moved into the Jenin refugee camp. There, exiled from his beloved olive groves, the family patriarch languishes of a broken heart, his eldest son fathers a family and fal

Recommended by Robin Yassin-Kassab.

Robin Yassin-Kassab

This is the first English-language epic novel to comprehensively express the Palestinian tragedy….It is a great interpenetration of fiction and documentary. Although the subject matter is necessarily political, it remains a great work of fiction and the characters are not ciphers for a political message. [source]

16

From Beirut to Jerusalem

Thomas L. Friedman

4.4

This extraordinary bestseller is still the most incisive, thought-provoking book ever written about the Middle East. Thomas L. Friedman, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, and now the Foreign Affairs columnist on the op-ed page of the New York Times, drew on his ten years in the Middle East to write a book that The Wall Street Journal called "a sparkling intellectual g

17

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Scott Anderson

4.4

A thrilling and revelatory narrative of one of the most epic and consequential periods in 20th century history – the Arab Revolt and the secret “great game” to control the Middle East

The Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War One was, in the words of T.E. Lawrence, “a sideshow of a sideshow.” Amidst the slaughter in European trenches, the Western combatants paid scant attention to the Middle E

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18

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS

Joby Warrick

4.3

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick reveals how the strain of militant Islam now raising its banner across Iraq and Syria spread from a remote Jordanian prison with the unwitting aid of American military intervention.

When he succeeded his father in 1999, King Abdullah of Jordan released a batch of political prisoners in the hopes of smoothing his transition to power. Little did he know t

Cover unavailable

19

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (Persepolis, #2)

Marjane Satrapi

4.3

In Persepolis, heralded by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the freshest and most original memoirs of our day," Marjane Satrapi dazzled us with her heartrending memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Here is the continuation of her fascinating story. In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she fa

20

The Prophet

Kahlil Gibran

4.3

Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies.

The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chap

Recommended by Naval Ravikant, Daylon Soh, Jason Nemer, and 3 others.

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

It actually read like a modern-day poetic religious tome. Up there with the Bhagavad-gita, the Tao Te Ching, The Bible, The Qur’an. It was written in that style where it had that feel of religiosity and truth, but it was very approachable and beautiful and non-denominational and non-secretarian. I really liked that. I loved that book. He has a gift for poetically describing what children are like, what lovers are like, what marriage should be like, how you should treat your enemies and your friends, how you should work with money, what can you think of every time you have to kill something to eat it. I felt, like the great religious books, it gave a very deep, very philosophical, but very true answer to how to approach the major problems in life. I recommend The Prophet to anybody, whether you’re religious or not. Whether you are Christian or Hindu or Jewish or Atheist. I think it’s a beautiful book, and it’s worth reading. [source]

Daylon Soh

The non-business book that has connected to my being most deeply would be poems in The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. [source]

Jason Nemer

I love really condensed, shakti empowerment-filled, energy-filled statements - something that you can read in a few minutes or you can read for your whole life. [source]

21

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

Peter Frankopan

4.3

Preview Summary

The sun is setting on the Western world. Slowly but surely, the direction in which the world spins has reversed: where for the last five centuries the globe turned westwards on its axis, it now turns to the east...For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in the west - in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The regi

Recommended by Professor Frank Mcdonough and Raoul Pal.

Professor Frank Mcdonough

Christmas is coming and if you want to give a thought-provoking book to that history fan in your life then the recent books by the brilliant @peterfrankopan will satisfy. Some write books, this guy changes perceptions. https://t.co/gWZWZnv5TN [source]

Raoul Pal

@The92ers @zerohedge It’s fascinating. The Peter Frankopan book on the Silk Roads told history well from the perspective of Iran in particular [source]

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22

The Red Tent

Anita Diamant

4.3

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the f

23

A History of the Arab Peoples

Albert Hourani

4.3

Encyclopedic and panoramic in its scope, this fascinating work chronicles the rich spiritual, political, and cultural institutions of Arab history through 13 centuries.

No region in the world today is more important than the Middle East: no people more misunderstood than the Arabs. In this definitive masterwork, distinguished Oxford historian Albert Hourani offers the most lucid, enlightening histo

Recommended by Eugene Rogan and Tarek Osman.

Eugene Rogan

Reza Aslan

4.2

A fascinating, accessible introduction to Islam from the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Zealot

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A finalist for the Guardian First Book Award

In No god but God, internationally acclaimed scholar Reza Aslan explains Islam—the origins and evolution of the faith—in all its beauty and complexity. This updated edition addresses the events of the past decade, analyzin

Recommended by David Cortright.

David Cortright

For me, this is the best introduction to Islam. I think all of us in the West are trying to learn more about Islamic culture and religion. Aslan writes so beautifully about what Islam represents – its theological, cultural and economic dimensions. It’s the most eye-opening and illuminating book I’ve read on the subject. It gave me a sense of respect for Islamic culture and the great scientific and cultural contributions of its past. [source]

30

Exit West

Mohsin Hamid

4.2

In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that

31

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

Tamim Ansary

4.2

We in the west share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years.In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why our civilizations grew up o

32

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mohsin Hamid

4.2

At a cafe table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter...

Changez is living an immigrant's dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by an elite valuation firm. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant,

Recommended by Ahmede Hussain, Amy Waldman, and Daniyal Mueenuddin.

Ahmede Hussain

This is an amazing book, and it’s a shame that it didn’t win the Man Booker Prize in 2007 – in my opinion it was the best of the bunch. I think it’s going to become a modern classic in five or 10 years’ time, if it’s not already regarded as one. This novel speaks for so many peoples’ experiences in the aftermath of 9/11. The prose is very tight and the title is also very clever. [source]

Amy Waldman

You’re right – the protagonist has a completely different profile from the humble one in Harbor. Changez is from a prestigious Pakistani family, but one without a lot of money. He comes to the United States to attend Princeton on a scholarship and then is recruited into the corporate world. The whole novel is a monologue. This character, in a café in Lahore, is talking to an unidentified American, telling his story about the life he led in the United States. How he was enamoured of New York, yet smiled as the Towers fell and grew even more embittered toward America in the wake of the attacks. The structure is original and well executed. [source]

Daniyal Mueenuddin

Well, it’s an odd kind of book. I think what’s especially useful about it is the way in which it describes the transformation in this man’s thinking. The protagonist is somebody who had been living in New York and been a banker and he gradually turns into, as the title says, a reluctant fundamentalist. This is something that I have seen among my friends in Pakistan. People who I have always thought of as very, very Westernised. They went to school abroad and certainly didn’t have the habits of religious types. But they are increasingly angry with the West and sympathetic to an anti-Western agenda and propaganda and very receptive to all kind of thoughts. These are really rational people who will now tell me straight out that September 11 was actually perpetrated by the Israelis and had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda. To me their theories seem absolutely loony and yet these guys have come out with something radically different. [source]

33

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Michael B. Oren

4.2

Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades, from the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to the ongoing intifada, is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting. Michael B. Oren’s magnificent Six Days of War, an internationally acclaimed bestseller, is the first comprehensive acco

34

Jerusalem: The Biography

Simon Sebag-Montefiore

4.2

Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilizations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of three thousand years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and

Recommended by Ghanem Nuseibeh.

Ghanem Nuseibeh

Brilliant! If you want to read about Jerusalem’s history, it’s Simon’s book! https://t.co/vHyCpMu0eh [source]

35

The Arabs: A History

Eugene Rogan

4.2

To American observers, the Arab world often seems little more than a distant battleground characterized by religious zealotry and political chaos. Years of tone-deaf US policies have left the region powerless to control its own destiny—playing into a longstanding sense of shame and impotence for a once-mighty people. In this definitive account, preeminent historian Eugene Rogan traces five centuri

Recommended by Issandr El Amrani.

Issandr El Amrani

I chose this book because I think the weight of history and the historical context is really important. There have been a number of general histories of the Arab world. What Eugene Rogan does in this book is to provide a very well written, comprehensive and general history of the Arab world in modern times. What he does well is to highlight how much interaction there has been in the Arab world with outside forces, especially the West, and how so much of the modern region has come out of that experience – imperialism, colonisation and so on. [source]

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36

A History of the Modern Middle East

William L. Cleveland and Martin Bunton

4.2

A History of the Modern Middle East examines the profound and often dramatic transformations of the region in the past two centuries, from the Ottoman and Egyptian reforms, through the challenge of Western imperialism, to the impact of US foreign policies. Built around a framework of political history, while also carefully integrating social, cultural, and economic developments, this expertly craf

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37

America's War for the Greater Middle East

Andrew J. Bacevich, Rob Shapiro, et al

4.2

Retired army colonel and New York Times bestselling author Andrew J. Bacevich provides a searing reassessment of U.S. military policy in the Middle East over the past four decades.

From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else

38

Exodus

Leon Uris

4.2

Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon--the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorio

Recommended by Ben Shapiro, Michael Goldfarb, and Stephen Walt.

Ben Shapiro

A really terrific book. … It's sort of the history of the founding of Israel. [source]

Michael Goldfarb

The book was structured in such a way that it dealt with the Holocaust and the politics of establishing Israel. [source]

Stephen Walt

Exodus is a book that had a profound impact on how many Americans thought about Israel. [source]

39

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Ilan Pappe

4.2

Since the Holocaust, it has been almost impossible to hide large-scale crimes against humanity. In our communicative world, few modern catastrophes are concealed from the public eye. And yet, Ilan Pappe unveils, one such crime has been erased from the global public memory: the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in 1948. But why is it denied, and by whom? The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine offers

Recommended by Robin Yassin-Kassab.

Robin Yassin-Kassab

Pappe has written a great historical work on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1947/8 and he shows that it was organised and planned, called Plan D, or plan Dalit, and he has exploded the myths that were current until his work. [source]

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40

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

Nujood Ali, Delphine Minoui, Linda Coverdale

4.2

“I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.”

Nujood Ali's childhood came to an abrupt end in 2008 when her father arranged for her to be married to a man three times her age. With harrowing directness, Nujood tells of abuse at her husband's hands and of her daring escap

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41

Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph

T.E. Lawrence

4.2

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is an unusual and rich work. It encompasses an account of the Arab Revolt against the Turks during the First World War alongside general Middle Eastern and military history, politics, adventure and drama. It is also a memoir of the soldier known as 'Lawrence of Arabia'.Lawrence is a fascinating and controversial figure and his talent as a vivid and imaginative writer shines

Recommended by Dan Choi and Wade Davis.

Dan Choi

Yes, it’s a book about Lawrence’s experiences during World War I, when he was stationed in North African and the Middle East. He writes about some of the lessons that he learnt from the military leaders from the Allies, and the Bedouin and tribal leaders. The book was influential to me because I can see his contribution as an Arabist. [source]

Wade Davis

Someone once asked me, if a fire burnt down my house what would be the one thing I would walk out with? And it’s a first-edition, leather-bound copy of this incredible book signed by my grandfather. My grandfather was himself a surgeon at a casualty clearing station on the Western Front. [source]

42

Palace Walk (The Cairo Trilogy, #1)

Naguib Mahfouz

4.2

Volume I of the masterful Cairo Trilogy. A national best-seller in both hardcover and paperback, it introduces the engrossing saga of a Muslim family in Cairo during Egypt's occupation by British forces in the early 1900s.

43

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

Thomas E. Ricks

4.2

This is the Story of The American Military Adventure in Iraq. The Heart of the story Fiasco has to tell, which has never been told before, is that of a Military occupation whose leaders failed to see a blooming insurgency for what it was and as a result lead their soldiers in such a way that the insurgency became inevitable.

Recommended by Bryan Callen, Jeremy Greenstock, and Patrick Cockburn.

Bryan Callen

Bryan Callen recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

Jeremy Greenstock

Ricks writes fluently and eloquently. His book shows what the Americans thought about Iraq, and what they thought the Iraqis thought. [source]

Patrick Cockburn

When you read about Iraq, you need to know that it is a country more divided than almost anywhere else in the world. [source]

44

My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel

Ari Shavit

4.2

A groundbreaking, ambitious, and authoritative examination of Israel by one of the most influential columnists writing about the Middle East today

My Promised Land tells the story of Israel as it has never been told before. Facing unprecedented internal and external pressures, Israel today is at a moment of existential crisis. Through revealing stories of significant events and of ordinary individu

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45

The Yacoubian Building

Alaa Al Aswany

4.2

This controversial bestselling novel in the Arab world reveals the political corruption, sexual repression, religious extremism, and modern hopes of Egypt today.

All manner of flawed and fragile humanity reside in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor now slowly decaying in the smog and bustle of downtown Cairo: a fading aristocrat and self-proclaimed "scientist of wome

Recommended by Humphrey Davies.

Humphrey Davies

The Yacoubian Builiding is celebrated, possibly even notorious, for being a real bestseller — originally in Egypt and the Arab world and subsequently in the West, in English and in many other languages. It tells the story of a building in downtown Cairo, and the changes that have affected the building and its inhabitants. So it encapsulates the last 80 years of Egyptian history and it provides a series of extremely sharply drawn sketches of what you might call archetypal figures of our day. You have the ageing aristocrat; you have the doorkeeper’s son who becomes a terrorist when his career ambitions are thwarted by the system. There’s a corrupt mega-businessman who winds up trying to battle the government when it wants to take what he considers too big a bite of his business — and a whole range of other poor and middle class characters who are adapting to the situation as best they can. It’s beautifully written; it’s incredibly readable; it’s often very funny — and I suspect it will go on being read for many years as a kind of portrait of Egypt on the eve of the events that are taking place now. [source]

46

My Name Is Red

Orhan Pamuk and Erdag Gokna

4.2

At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.

The Sultan has commissioned a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land to create a great book celebrating the

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47

The Blood of Flowers

Anita Amirrezvani

4.1

In the fabled city of Isfahan, in seventeenth-century Persia, a young woman confronts a dismal fate: Her beloved father had died and left her without a dowry. Forced to work as a servant in the home of her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the Shah, the young woman blossoms as a brilliant designer of carpets. But while her talent flourishes, her prospects for a happy marriage grow dim, an

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48

A Tale of Love and Darkness

Amos Oz

4.1

Tragic, comic, and utterly honest, A Tale of Love and Darkness is at once a family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history.

It is the story of a boy growing up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the forties and fifties, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. The sto

Recommended by Michael Goldfarb.

49

Son of Hamas

Mosab Hassan Yousef

4.1

Since he was a small boy, Mosab Hassan Yousef has had an inside view of the deadly terrorist group Hamas. The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member of Hamas and its most popular leader, young Mosab assisted his father for years in his political activities while being groomed to assume his legacy, politics, status . . . and power. But everything changed when Mosab turned away from t

Recommended by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Yes. That is the good thing about it. I always get these accusations, ‘Oh, but you are just from Somalia’, your case is not representative. There are many memoirs, but again, if you tell me to reduce it to just one, I pick his. I read a review of this book and it made me buy it instantly. What I liked about it is that it is by a man. It is the story of a man who grew up as the son of a prominent person in Hamas, immersed in the doctrine and the suicide killings. But he ends up living in a US suburb and completely adopting American values. [source]

50

Not Without My Daughter

Betty Mahmoody

4.1

In August 1984, Michigan housewife Betty Mahmoody accompanied her husband to his native Iran for a two-week vacation that turned into a permanent stay. To her horror, she found herself and her four-year-old daughter, Mahtob, virtual prisoners of a man rededicated to his Shiite Moslem faith, in a land where women are near-slaves and Americans despised. Their only hope for escape lay in a dangerous

51

The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State

Nadia Murad

4.1

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

In this intimate memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story.

Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or op

52

Woman at Point Zero

Nawal El Saadawi, Sherif Hetata

4.1

From her prison cell, Firdaus, sentenced to die for having killed a pimp in a Cairo street, tells of her life from village childhood to city prostitute. Society's retribution for her act of defiance - death - she welcomes as the only way she can finally be free.

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53

Arabian Sands

Wilfred Thesiger

4.1

"Arabian Sands" is Wilfred Thesiger's record of his extraordinary journey through the parched "Empty Quarter" of Arabia. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life-"the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets." In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had neve

Recommended by Bernard Haykel and Jo Tatchell.

Bernard Haykel

This is an older book and an unusual choice. I contracted malaria when I was in Yemen doing fieldwork. Between bouts of feverish hallucination, I read this book. It’s the authority on the Arabian Desert. He ventures into The Empty Quarter, one of the great deserts of the world. Arabia was an incredibly harsh place for human beings to live. Thesiger shows how Arabs, especially nomadic Arabs, were in tune with this ecology. They developed a culture that enabled them to survive. He shows the humanity of the Bedouin, otherwise thought to be savages. [source]

Jo Tatchell

This was written in the 1950s after Thesiger returned from five years of Arabian travel. He was one of the few non-indigenous people to cross “the Empty Quarter”, the desert that occupies a huge part of what is now Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It’s almost a million square kilometres of billowing amber dunes – and more terrifying than an ocean. Usually, people travelled around the peninsula by sea, hugging the coast to get from town to town. A group travelling from Qatar to Mecca would make their way around the southern part of the peninsula. But there were ways of crossing it and, after World War II, Thesiger was offered a role mapping out the patters of locusts travelling across the desert. He jumped at the chance and joined the Rashid, a Bedu tribe, who lived in the old way, unsullied by the modernity that would soon accompany the arrival of oil prospectors. Thesiger relished the intimacy of the desert brotherhood. His passion for their simple way of life grew ever greater as he spent time with them. They cared for each other, knowing their lives depended upon it. And it had to be so; if one is cast out in the wilderness like that, it isn’t possible to survive alone. The camaraderie he describes is exclusively male; but he appreciated the regimen of the desert’s “barbaric splendour”. He valued the austerity of the lifestyle and the keen hardness of the people he declared most noble, pure in thought and deed. [source]

54

The Qur'an

Maulana Muhammad Ali

4.1

One of the most influential books in the history of literature, recognized as the greatest literary masterpiece in Arabic, the Qur'an is the supreme authority and living source of all Islamic teaching, the sacred text that sets out the creed, rituals, ethics, and laws of Islam. Yet despite the growing interest in Islamic teachings and culture, there has never been a truly satisfactory English tran

Recommended by Ahmad Thomson, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Naeem Ul Haque.

Ahmad Thomson

When I accepted Islam I’d done it on the basis of meeting Shaykh Abdalqadir and the people around him, and I realised that I knew nothing about it really. So obviously one of the first things was to learn the basics – and I thought I’d better read the Qur’an because that’s the book of the Muslims! At the time I had the Arberry translation which is accurate, and which in some measure conveys the poetry of the very pure Arabic of the original. In fact, at the time of the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, some people accepted Islam on the basis of the purity of the Arabic in which the Qur’an is written: they said, ‘This couldn’t have been written by a human being!’ As the years passed I had access to the Muhammad Pickthall and Yusuf Ali translations, which are written in a rather Biblical English. Their use of vocabulary was not always appropriate, because sometimes it included words that have taken on certain connotations through the way they are used in the European Christian tradition. For example, the word ‘sin’ is used to translate the word dhanb in Arabic – but dhanb really means a wrong action which holds you back from the mercy of your Lord. So this is a completely different way of looking at a wrong action, and there’s no guilt attached to it. The Bewley translation is a beautiful translation, where some of the key terms are not translated but transliterated, with a small glossary at the back defining what each term means. This helps you to keep to the original meaning of the Qur’an – it’s a clear, crisp rendering of its meaning in English. I often read a translation of an ayat and I think I never remember reading that before, and I compare it with how Pickthall or Yusuf Ali translated it – and I see that they didn’t quite hit the mark. Read 4 Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik by Translated by Aisha Bewley and Ya'qub Johnson Read [source]

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The Koran is supposed to be the words of God and the Hadith are the sayings and deeds of the prophet. The Koran has the basic commands; the Hadith or the Sunna, is a sort of manual. It is supposed to be a guideline of how to understand the Koran, because people say that it’s not explicit enough. The Hadith is a compilation of six volumes and they are called the Sahith Sitta – Sitta just means six and Sahith means authentic. [source]

Naeem Ul Haque

The judiciary must not forget that far far above our constitution is the ultimate book of principles and that is the wholly Quran. Every judge in the country must keep a copy of Quran with translation on his/ her desk so that the judge can realise that the Law of God is Supreme. [source]

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55

Rooftops of Tehran

Mahbod Seraji

4.1

From "a striking new talent"(Sandra Dallas, author of Tallgrass) comes an unforgettable debut novel of young love and coming of age in an Iran headed toward revolution.

In this poignant, eye-opening and emotionally vivid novel, Mahbod Seraji lays bare the beauty and brutality of the centuries-old Persian culture, while reaffirming the human experiences we all share.

In a middle-class neighborhood

56

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Anonymous

4.1

Andrew George's "masterly new translation" (The Times) of the world's first truly great work of literature

Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as much as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the world’s oldest epic, predating Homer by many centuries. The story tells of Gilgamesh’s adventures with the wild man Enkidu, and of his arduous journey to the ends of t

Recommended by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Cave.

Ryan Holiday

Author

Kim Ghattas

4.1

The bestselling author of The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power tells the gripping story of the real roots of the Middle East Sunni-Shia conflict in the 1979 Iran Revolution that changed the region forever.

Black Wave is a paradigm-shifting recasting of the modern history of the Middle East, telling the largely unexplored story of the rivalry betwe

Recommended by Adam Edelen, Faysal Itani, and Isabella Steger.

Adam Edelen

I love when a book exceeds high expectations. @KimGhattas ”Black Wave” is a book of the year. Her writing is a compelling narrative, relentlessly clear-eyed in its analysis. It recalls @tomfriedman ”Beirut to Jerusalem” as a Middle East primer for the 21st century. Bravo! https://t.co/1qblYyqb7T [source]

Faysal Itani

'Black Wave' by @KimGhattas is such an important and timely book. I'm glad it exists, and it should be required reading for anyone trying to understand how we (Islamic world/Middle east) got were we are. Big historical narratives and fascinating detail as well. [source]

Isabella Steger

i just read it it’s a great book https://t.co/8NWa8ZXkeL [source]

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71

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir

Riad Sattouf

4.1

The Arab of the Future, the #1 French best-seller, tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf's childhood, spent in the shadows of 3 dictators—Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father

In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi's Libya

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72

Palestine

Joe Sacco

4.1

Prior to Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995—Joe Sacco's breakthrough novel of graphic journalism—the acclaimed author was best known for Palestine, a two-volume graphic novel that won an American Book Award in 1996.

Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present the first single-volume collection of this landmark of journalism and the art form of comics.

Based on several months of res

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73

A Woman Is No Man

Etaf Rum

4.1

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A READ WITH JENNATODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A Washington Post 10 Books to Read in March • A Marie Claire Best Women’s Fiction of 2019 • A USA Today Best Book of the Week • A Washington Book Review Difficult-To-Put-Down Novel • A Refinery 29 Best Books of the Month • An Electric Lit 20 Best Debuts of the First Half of 2019

74

The Forever War

Dexter Filkins

4.1

From the front lines of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, a searing, unforgettable book that captures the human essence of the greatest conflict of our time.

Through the eyes of Dexter Filkins, the prizewinning New York Times correspondent whose work was hailed by David Halberstam as “reporting of the highest quality imaginable,” we witness the remarkable chain of events that began with th

Recommended by Kanan Makiya.

Kanan Makiya

Iraq is a country with a particularly violent history of formation. In this book you capture a flavour of some of the human complexity that history left behind. [source]

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75

The Wrath and the Dawn (The Wrath and the Dawn, #1)

Renée Ahdieh

4.1

One Life to One Dawn.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride.

76

Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War

Robert Fisk

4.0

Account of war in the late-20th century both as historical document and as an eyewitness testament to human savagery. Written by one of Britain's foremost journalists, this book combines political analysis and war reporting: it is an epic account of the Lebanon conflict by an author who has personally witnessed the carnage of Beirut for over a decade. Fisk's book recounts the details of a terrible

Recommended by Eugene Rogan.

Eugene Rogan

Fisk writes the most compassionate and engaging prose about his own experiences in Lebanon. As a journalist he seems to get underneath the skin of that society better than just about anyone I know. And it’s a book I relate to very personally, having lived for five years in Lebanon and having been forced to leave the country because of the outbreak of the civil war. So I felt very close to his subject. Fisk, of course, stayed through the very worst days of the conflict, when any rat worth his skin was going to get on a ship and get out of Lebanon. And so he wrote the story of the horrors that he saw in war-torn Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s, and I think it probably stands as the best example of a book of political journalism of conflict in the Middle East that I can think of. He just writes like an angel. [source]

77

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels

Kenneth E. Bailey

4.0

Beginning with Jesus' birth, Ken Bailey leads you on a kaleidoscopic study of Jesus throughout the four Gospels. Bailey examines the life and ministry of Jesus with attention to the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, Jesus' relationship to women, and especially Jesus' parables. Through it all, Bailey employs his trademark expertise as a master of Middle Eastern culture to lead you into a deeper unders

78

Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations

Ronen Bergman

4.0

The first definitive history of the Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF’s targeted killing programs, from the man hailed by David Remnick as “arguably [Israel’s] best investigative reporter”

The Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very b

Recommended by Noah Kagan and Rory Cormac.

Noah Kagan

Founder/Sumo

I’m shocked this book was released. It shares unbelievable stories about Israel secret intelligence and perseverance. [source]

Rory Cormac

In stark contrast to some of the other books which were written by insiders, this book is 100 per cent unofficial and unauthorised. It’s written by a journalist, albeit a journalist with a history PhD. It’s based on interviews and documents that he’s been given over the years. It’s the kind of story that the Israelis didn’t want telling and, in fact, tried to prevent the book from being published. [source]

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79

Girls of Riyadh

rajaa-alsanea

4.0

When Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women—their private lives and their conflicts with the traditions of their culture—she caused a sensation across the Arab world.

Now in English, Alsanea’s tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh bu

80

NIV, Maxwell Leadership Bible, 3rd Edition, Hardcover, Comfort Print: Holy Bible, New International Version

Thomas Nelson

4.0

Every believer is a person of influence. In the Maxwell Leadership Bible, leadership expert John C. Maxwell shows you the principles of leadership taught in God’s Word and how to use them. Whether you are an employee, a boss, a parent, or a neighbor, you are a person of influence in your part of the world. Throughout the pages of Scripture, John Maxwell has assembled the time-tested and irrefutabl

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81

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil

Deborah Rodriguez, Kristin Ohlson

4.0

Soon after the fall of the Taliban, in 2001, Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid to this war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills–as doctors, nurses, and therapists–seemed eminently more practical than her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two from Michigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon found she had a gi

82

The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between

Hisham Matar

4.0

Hisham Matar was nineteen when his father was kidnapped and taken to prison in Libya. He would never see him again. Twenty-two years later, the fall of Gaddafi meant he was finally able to return to his homeland. In this moving memoir, the author takes us on an illuminating journey, both physical and psychological; a journey to find his father and rediscover his country.

Recommended by Barack Obama and Stephanie Flanders.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list. [source]

Stephanie Flanders

It’s about a UK-based writer whose father disappeared in Libya. [source]

83

The Shahnameh: The Persian Book Of Kings

Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Dick Davis

4.0

THE SHAHNAMEH (Book of Kings) is the national epic of Iran composed by the poet Ferdowsi between 980 and 1010 AD. It tells the story of ancient Persia, beginning in the mythic time of Creation and continuing forward to the Arab-Islamic invasion in the seventh century. Brilliantly translated into prose and verse (in the naqqali tradition) by the poet and Ferdowsi scholar Dick Davis and magnificentl

Recommended by Ali Ansari.

Ali Ansari

Yes, the Shahnameh is an epic poetic rendition of what is generally described as the national myth of Iran. It is in effect a creation myth which looks at mythical and legendary kings down into the historical period of the last two pre-Islamic dynasties. What Ferdowsi, the author of this poem, did at the cusp of the 11th century was put this monumental prose material into poetic form. And this was a form that could be memorised so that the history and identity of a people who had suffered defeat in a conquest could also be maintained for prosperity. The edition I am looking at is an abridged translation by Dick Davis and I think it is probably the best on the market. The original is twice the length of the Iliad: it is a huge, huge text which many Persians and Iranians can recite part of. But I think this text and the way in which Dick Davis has managed to bring some of the lyrical beauty of the text into English is also a great way for a non-Persian speaker to be able to access the myths and legends of the Iranians. [source]

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84

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Rajiv Chandrasekaran

4.0

An unprecedented account of life in Baghdad’s Green Zone, a walled-off enclave of towering plants, posh villas, and sparkling swimming pools that was the headquarters for the American occupation of Iraq.

The Washington Post’s former Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran takes us with him into the Zone: into a bubble, cut off from wartime realities, where the task of reconstructing a devastated

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85

Footnotes in Gaza

Joe Sacco

4.0

From the great cartoonist-reporter, a sweeping, original investigation of a forgotten crime in the most vexed of places

Rafah, a town at the bottommost tip of the Gaza Strip, is a squalid place. Raw concrete buildings front trash-strewn alleys. The narrow streets are crowded with young children and unemployed men. On the border with Egypt, swaths of Rafah have been bulldozed to rubble. Rafah is tod

Recommended by Hillary Chute and Raja Shehadeh.

Hillary Chute

Joe Sacco is the foremost figure in what he calls ‘comics journalism’ – he really established this category. [source]

Raja Shehadeh

This is an amazing, graphic and emotional book about the massacres carried out by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip in 1956. [source]

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86

The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy, #1)

S. A Chakraborty

4.0

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, da

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87

We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria

Wendy Pearlman

4.0

LONG-LISTED FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL

Reminiscent of the work of Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, an astonishing collection of intimate wartime testimonies and poetic fragments from a cross-section of Syrians whose lives have been transformed by revolution, war, and flight.

Against the backdrop of the wave of demonstrations known as the Arab Spring, in 2011 hundreds of thousands of Syrians took

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88

Salt Houses

Hala Alyan

4.0

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 predictions to herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967.

Salma is forced to leave her home in Nablus; Alia’s

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89

The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years

Bernard Lewis

4.0

In a sweeping and vivid survey, renowned historian Bernard Lewis charts the history of the Middle East over the last 2,000 years, from the birth of Christianity through the modern era, focusing on the successive transformations that have shaped it.

Drawing on material from a multitude of sources, including the work of archaeologists and scholars, Lewis chronologically traces the political, economic

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90

Habibi

Craig Thompson

4.0

From the internationally acclaimed author of Blankets , a highly anticipated new graphic novel.

Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they st

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91

The Dovekeepers

Alice Hoffman

4.0

Over five years in the writing, The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman's most ambitious and mesmerizing novel, a tour de force of imagination and research, set in ancient Israel.

In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and i

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92

The Source

James A. Michener, Steve Berry

4.0

In the grand storytelling style that is his signature, James Michener sweeps us back through time to the very beginnings of the Jewish faith, thousands of years ago. Through the predecessors of four modern men and women, we experience the entire colorful history of the Jews, including the life of the early Hebrews and their persecutions, the impact of Christianity, the Crusades, and the Spanish In

Recommended by Ben Shapiro.

Ben Shapiro

Basically a bunch of short stories. But a bunch of them are really, really compelling and interesting. … It's a long read but it's an easy read. [source]

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93

The Bastard of Istanbul

Elif Shafak

4.0

From one of Turkey’s most acclaimed and outspoken writers, a novel about the tangled histories of two families.

In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country’s violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the “bastard” of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists

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94

Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution

Mona Eltahawy

4.0

The journalist Mona Eltahawy is no stranger to controversy. Through her articles and actions she has fought for the autonomy, security, and dignity of Muslim women, drawing vocal supporters and detractors. Now, in her first book, Headscarves and Hymens, Eltahawy has prepared a definitive condemnation of the repressive forces--political, cultural, and religious--that reduce millions of women to sec

Recommended by Mike Forsythe.

Mike Forsythe

What a great event! Thank you magnificent moderator @monaeltahawy and thank you @strandbookstore for hosting @LetaHong for hosting a #BetrayingBigBrother book event. Mona’s “Headscarves and Hymens” also for sale! https://t.co/bqL2v1UbYN [source]

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95

In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom

Qanta Ahmed

4.0

"In this stunningly written book, a Western trained Muslim doctor brings alive what it means for a woman to live in the Saudi Kingdom. I've rarely experienced so vividly the shunning and shaming, racism and anti-Semitism, but the surprise is how Dr. Ahmed also finds tenderness at the tattered edges of extremism, and a life-changing pilgrimage back to her Muslim faith." - Gail Sheehy
The decisions

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96

Shah of Shahs

Ryszard Kapuscinski

4.0

In Shah of Shahs Kapuscinski brings a mythographer's perspective and a novelist's virtuosity to bear on the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran, one of the most infamous of the United States' client-dictators, who resolved to transform his country into "a second America in a generation," only to be toppled virtually overnight. From his vantage point at the break-up of the old regime, Kapuscinski gi

Recommended by Jasmin Darznik and Steve Crawshaw.

Jasmin Darznik

Kapuscinski is widely regarded as the greatest travel writer of the 20th century. Polish by birth, he witnessed some 40 revolutions and wars during his time as a journalist. He had already built a long and illustrious career when he found his way to Iran on the eve of the 1979 revolution. At that moment it was still a populist revolution rather than an Islamic one – the contours of the revolution were as yet undefined. So it is an interesting moment for him to have found himself on the streets of Tehran. [source]

Steve Crawshaw

Kapuściński’s writing has a poetry to it that I adore. He was a journalist, working for the Polish state news agency, writing a lot of routine stories. Books were his release, a chance to get at the inner truth of what was happening. Some have accused him of imagining too much, but I remain loyal. Fundamentally, he doesn’t distort in the big picture. He lets things speak. It’s like a playwright’s writing, but it’s not fiction. He stands the test of time. [source]

97

Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor

Clinton Romesha

4.0

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The only comprehensive, firsthand account of the fourteen-hour firefight at the Battle of Keating by Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha, for readers of Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.

"'It doesn't get better.' To us, that phrase nailed one of the essential truths, maybe even the essential truth, about being stuck at an outpost

98

The Places in Between

Rory Stewart

4.0

In January 2002 Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan-surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. By day he passed through mountains covered in nine feet of snow, hamlets burned and emptied by the Taliban, and communities thriving amid the remains of medieval civilizations. By night he slept on villagers' floors, shared their meals,

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99

Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope

Shirin Ebadi, Azadeh Moaveni

4.0

The moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges she has faced raising a family while pursuing her work.
Best known in this country as the lawyer working tirelessly on behalf of Canadian photojournali

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100

And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East

Richard Engel

4.0

Based on two decades of reporting, NBC’s chief foreign correspondent’s riveting story of the Middle East revolutions, the Arab Spring, war, and terrorism seen up-close—sometimes dangerously so.

When he was just twenty-three, a recent graduate of Stanford University, Richard Engel set off to Cairo with $2,000 and dreams of being a reporter. Shortly thereafter he was working freelance for Arab news s