SWANA Authors

Spring

By: Leila Rafei

Narrated by: Negin Farsad

Length: 8 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

Three stories. One revolution. Eighteen days in Egypt.Sami is no revolutionary. When the Arab Spring breaks out in 2011, he’s busy finishing school in Cairo and hiding his relationship with an American woman from his conservative mother, Suad. It’s a task that’s becoming impossible as events take a catastrophic turn. But Suad won’t be fooled—her... Read more

The Frightened Ones

By: Dima Wannous

Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò

Length: 5 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

**Finalist for the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction**

A timely and haunting novel from an exciting new voice in international literature, set in present-day Syria

In her therapist's waiting room in Damascus, Suleima meets a strange and reticent man named Naseem, and they soon begin a tense affair. But when Naseem, a writer, flees Syria... Read more

Court of Lions

By: Somaiya Daud

Narrated by: Rasha Zamamiri

Length: 9 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

"Narrator Rasha Zamamiri delivers an enchanting conclusion to a fantasy series immersed in Moroccan-inspired traditions that emotionally connect listeners to vivid characters with high stakes...Filled with political intrigue, this audiobook is hard to pause." -- AudioFile Magazine

Court of Lions is the long-awaited second and final... Read more

Sex and Lies

By: Leila Slimani

Narrated by: Sarah Agha

Length: 4 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

"Jaw-dropping . . . Inspiring . . . A haunting and beautifully composed book . . . It blew my mind." --Lisa Taddeo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three Women

A fearless exposé of the secrets and lies of women's intimate lives, by the bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny, Adèle, and In the Country of Others

"All those in positions of... Read more

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

By: Laila Lalami

Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi

Length: 4 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits evokes the grit and enduring grace that is modern Morocco.

As four Moroccans illegally cross the Strait of Gibraltar in an inflatable boat headed for Spain, author Laila Lalami asks, What has driven them to risk their lives? And will the rewards prove to be worth the danger? There's Murad, a gentle, unemployed... Read more

Girl Decoded

By: Rana el Kaliouby & Carol Colman

Narrated by: Rana el Kaliouby

Length: 11 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

In a captivating memoir, an Egyptian American visionary and scientist provides an intimate view of her personal transformation as she follows her calling—to humanize our technology and how we connect with one another.

LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • “A vivid coming-of-age story and a call to each of us to be more mindful and... Read more

Man of My Time

By: Dalia Sofer

Narrated by: Navid Navid

Length: 11 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Set in Iran and New York City, Dalia Sofer's second novel, Man of My Time, tells the story of Hamid Mozaffarian, who is as alienated from himself as he is from the world. After decades of ambivalence about his work for the Iranian, Hamid travels to New York, where he encounters his estranged family and retrieves the ashes of his father - who was... Read more

We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders

By: Linda Sarsour

Narrated by: Linda Sarsour

Length: 7 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Linda Sarsour, co-organizer of the Women’s March, shares an “unforgettable memoir” (Booklist) about how growing up Palestinian Muslim American, feminist, and empowered moved her to become a globally recognized activist on behalf of marginalized communities across the country.

On a chilly spring morning in Brooklyn, nineteen-year-old Linda Sarsour... Read more

Cast Away

By: Naomi Shihab Nye

Narrated by: Naomi Shihab Nye

Length: 2 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

“Nye at her engaging, insightful best.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Acclaimed poet and Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye shines a spotlight on the things we cast away, from plastic water bottles to those less fortunate, in this collection of more than eighty original and never-before-published poems. A deeply moving, sometimes... Read more

The Arabic Quilt

By: Aya Khalil

Narrated by: Full Cast

Length: 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Kanzi's family has moved from Egypt to America, and on her first day in a new school, what she wants more than anything is to fit in. Maybe that's why she forgets to take the kofta sandwich her mother has made for her lunch, but that backfires when Mama shows up at school with the sandwich. Mama wears a hijab and calls her daughter Habibti (dear... Read more

The Twenty-Ninth Year

By: Hala Alyan

Narrated by: Hala Alyan

Length: 1 hour 13 minutes

Abridged: No

"This is the stuff of life, the very essence of the poetic." —LitHub

For Hala Alyan, twenty-nine is a year of transformation and upheaval, a year in which the past—memories of family members, old friends and past lovers, the heat of another land, another language, a different faith—winds itself around the present. Hala's ever-shifting,... Read more

Our Women on the Ground

By: Zahra Hankir

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Length: 10 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

Nineteen Arab women journalists speak out about what it’s like to report on their changing homelands in this first-of-its-kind essay collection, with a foreword by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour

“A stirring, provocative and well-made new anthology . . . that rewrites the hoary rules of the foreign correspondent... Read more

Beirut Hellfire Society

By: Rawi Hage

Narrated by: Neil Shah

Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

On a ravaged street overlooking a cemetery in Beirut's Christian enclave, we meet an eccentric young man named Pavlov, the son of a local undertaker. When his father meets a sudden and untimely death, Pavlov is approached by a colorful member of the mysterious Hellfire Society—an anti-religious sect that, among many rebellious and often... Read more

Arabs

By: Tim Mackintosh-Smith

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 25 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

A riveting, comprehensive history of the Arab peoples and tribes that explores the role of language as a cultural touchstone This kaleidoscopic book covers almost three thousand years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances.... Read more

Libretto for the Desert

By: Sona Van

Narrated by: Beata Pozniak

Length: 2 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

In A Libretto for the Desert, Sona Van’s subject is the Armenian genocide, also known as the Great Catastrophe. Van’s parents and grandparents were driven into exile due to this horrific event. Her poems reflect a personal connection to this history as well as the universality of loss, persecution, and intolerance. Read more

The Other Americans

By: Laila Lalami

Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò, P.J. Ochlan, Adenrele Ojo, Ozzie ...

Length: 10 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction
Finalist for the Kirkus Prize in Fiction
Winner of the Arab American Book Award in Fiction
Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, the Washington Post, BookPage, NPR, the Guardian, Variety, New York Public Library, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Dallas Morning News, and Kirkus Reviews. 

From the Pulitzer... Read more

The House of Wisdom

By: Jim al-Khalili

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 10 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

A myth-shattering view of the medieval Islamic world’s myriad scientific innovations, which preceded—and enabled—the European RenaissanceThe Arabic legacy of science and philosophy has long been hidden from the West. British-Iraqi physicist Jim Al-Khalili unveils that legacy to fascinating effect by returning to its roots in the hubs of Arab... Read more

Palace Walk

By: Naguib Mahfouz

Narrated by: Neil Shah

Length: 21 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

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. Read more

Sword and Scimitar

By: Raymond Ibrahim

Narrated by: John McLain

Length: 14 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

A sweeping history of the often-violent conflict between Islam and the West, shedding a revealing light on current hostilitiesThe West and Islam—the sword and scimitar—have clashed since the mid-seventh century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the Roman emperor rejected Prophet Muhammad’s order to abandon Christianity and convert to Islam,... Read more

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

By: Tahereh Mafi

Narrated by: Priya Ayyar

Length: 6 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A National Book Award Longlist title!From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series comes a powerful, heartrending contemporary novel about fear, first love, and the devastating impact of prejudice.
It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like... Read more

Mirage

By: Somaiya Daud

Narrated by: Rasha Zamamiri

Length: 8 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

“Mirage is full of characters who feel like they existed long before the story began, and a rich world that is as beautiful as it is cruel. Somaiya Daud is a rare talent. A smart, romantic, exciting debut.” —Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Divergent and Carve the Mark

A stunning epic fantasy audiobook inspired by the... Read more

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

By: Nabeel Qureshi

Narrated by: Nabeel Qureshi, Michelle Qureshi, Mark Mittelbe...

Length: 8 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 2015 Christian Book Award winner • Nabeel Qureshi describes his dramatic journey from Islam to Christianity in this expanded edition with new bonus content and reflections. "My friend Nabeel Qureshi was courageous enough to chase down the truth with intellectual integrity, no matter the personal cost," --Lee Strobel,... Read more

The Occasional Virgin

By: Hanan al-Shaykh

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Length: 7 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

In this frank and fearless novel, acclaimed writer Hanan al-Shaykh follows the tumultuous lives and sometimes shocking choices of women successful in their careers but unlucky in love.
 
On a sunny beach on the Italian Riviera, two thirtysomething women, Yvonne and Huda, relax by the sparkling sea. But despite the setting, as their vacation... Read more

Making the Arab World

By: Fawaz A. Gerges

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

Length: 18 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

In 2013, just two years after the popular overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian military ousted the country's first democratically elected president—Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood—and subsequently led a brutal repression of the Islamist group. These bloody events echoed an older political rift in Egypt and the Middle East: the... Read more