The 2024 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature Shortlist

The American University in Cairo Press extends its congratulations to all the authors who have been shortlisted for the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature this year.

This year’s six shortlisted titles were chosen from 181 novels submitted from 18 countries across the Arab world and outside it by a panel of esteemed judges, chaired by Sarah Enany, professor in the English Department of Cairo University and winner of the Banipal Prize for Literary Translation. She is joined by Ahmed Taibaoui, winner of the Best Arabic Novel Prize at the Sharjah International Book Fair in 2023 and the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2021; Kay Heikkinen, formerly at the University of Chicago, and winner of the Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation; Youssef Rakha, novelist, poet, and essayist; and Maysa Zaki, literary and theater critic with over thirty years of experience in the field.

The winner will be announced on 11 December 2024, the anniversary of Naguib Mahfouz’s birth.

The Sky is Smoking Cigarettes (al-Sama’ tudakhin al-saga’ir) by Wajdi al-Ahdal

War does nothing but destroy that which was already damaged before it began. It leaves deep-rooted scars, whether manifesting as a fish stealthily piercing a swimmer’s body, or as prolonged estrangement that robs its victim of the ability to tread the life that passes them by. Dhafir, the protagonist of the novel, is akin to a contemporary symbolic figure whose daily life intersects with the transformations in Yemen, both before and during the war, and the geographical, permanent migrations imposed on its people. We follow him in his daily life and his movements which resemble a continuous search for what is absent, for something completely unknown. Yet, there is no survival but through love, or so it seems to the characters of the novel: Abir, Nabat, Najia, Kifaya, Salma, Ashjan, and other women who come into Dhafir’s life and cross his path. They are not merely women; they are driving forces that push him to leave a mark in the middle of this void. Meanwhile, the sky watches. It looks down below, offering no miracles. It exhales cigarette smoke onto those living down under, where battles and wars never cease, and where obligatory complicity with death becomes the only means of survival. The Arabic edition is published by Hachette Antoine / Naufal Books.

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The Glass Woman (al-Sayyida al-zujajiya) by Amr El-Adly

Until the middle of summer 1977, a woman lived around here who later became a legend. She would walk around the neighborhood with her peculiar-looking baby boy, carrying him in her arms or pushing him in his steel, one-wheeled stroller. She would appear and then disappear suddenly. In his new novel, Amr al-Adly focuses on Thuma, who hadn’t recovered from a painful childbirth before realizing she had given birth to a baby with an abnormally large head. The author takes us smoothly into several intertwined worlds: the circus with all of its magic, hunting with all its conflicts, agriculture with all its hope, and the industrial world where there is no place for the weak or the idle. The author narrates the protagonist’s journey, merging fantasy with a palpable reality that you can see wherever you look, beginning with Thuma’s stepfather who deems her useless, helpless women struggling to survive, and men desperately searching for their crushed masculinity. All until Thuma finds a house of reeds where she thinks she found her missing sense of security. In The Glass Woman, life seems unfair at times, but Thuma decides to challenge the circumstances. Will the days crush her, or will she succeed in taming the world around her? The Arabic edition is published by Dar El Shorouk.

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The Scribe: Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (al-Warraq Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi) by Hisham Eid

And then he began to write in the thuluth script before us. It was as if he had cast the staff of Moses to swallow up what we were fabricating. He came with a great magic. The letters flowed from between his palms like a docile mare: like music you can see with your own eyes. The ink dripped on the paper joyfully and gleefully, in exactly the right amount he wished it to. It was as if the letters were smiling with their arches and their gaps, surrounded by flourishing gardens. He was a prophet of calligraphy. The Arabic edition is published by Dar Al Zayat.

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My Name is Zayzafun (Ismi Zayzafun) by Sausan Jamil Hasan (Syria)

The house burned down; nothing remained but black walls looking out into the abyss—a hollowed-out skull filled with dirt and worm eggs. My notebook burned; my life and memory are gone. It’s as if I have never existed, never lived this life.  All I want is for everyone who reads my novel to remember the story of Zayzafun who lived here and there . . . the one who fought for over fifty years since the question of backwardness preoccupied her mind . . . the one who struggled to bury Jahida in the soil of oblivion, just so she becomes who becomes her true self. Zayzafun was the name she chose for herself, a name worthy of representing and accompanying her through her journey, the journey that was only in her dreams. She wrote down her history before it was forgotten. History burned down; a massive machine crawled over its blackened walls, destroying it, and driving into the ground a steel post carrying a sign that said “al-Maqass: Umm Jahida’s Construction Project Shop.” The Arabic edition is published by Alrabie Publications.

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House of the Judge: The Journey of Qassim bin Yunis (Bayt al-qadi: masirat Qasim bin Yunis) by Mahmoud Adel Taha

A multi-generational historical epic inspired by Egyptian folklore, this novel unfolds through the voices of religious leaders and within the walls of mosques, revealing differences in the religious perspectives of its characters. The novel delves into various philosophies, like the conflict between reason and tradition, national identity and religious affiliation, different dynamics in marital relationships and parenting styles, and their psychological impacts on children. The novel places its characters under a magnifying glass and closely scrutinizes their behavior. The story reveals itself through the lens of the family of the religious judge Ahmed al-Fadl, as an Egyptian family observes their nation’s plight under the burden of subjugation and lack of sovereignty, all while bearing the weight of oppression inflicted by the Ottoman occupation. The Arabic edition is published by Bait Elyasmin for Translation, Publishing & Distribution.

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Muted Microphone (Micrufun katim sawt) by Mohammed Tarazi

The novel depicts the deterioration experienced in Lebanon since 2019, marked by economic collapse, the spread of COVID-19, the scarcity of household essentials, and the aftermath of the Beirut Port explosion. It documents the decline, serving as a muted outcry—as the title suggests—against the ruling elite. Silencing microphones choke the city and serve as a tool to silence protesting voices and promote illusory achievements. The cemetery, which is the setting in this narrative, symbolizes the inescapable decay, and while the presence of the sea gives a glimmer of hope, it is in reality another graveyard for the migrants seeking a better life. The novel revisits and reinterprets the Lebanese reality through characters that are as real as they are fictional, through contrasts and internal contradictions. The protagonist, Sultan, a young man born in a house overlooking the cemetery and eager to emigrate, finds himself, in the end, trapped between two cemeteries. The Arabic edition is published by Arab Scientific Publishers, Inc.