Sabata on the “Booker Long List”

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which was known as the “Arab Booker,” announced its longlist for the year 2026, including novels from Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, the Sultanate of Oman, and Yemen.

From Morocco, the award jury chose the novel by Abdelmajid Sabata, published by the Arab Cultural Center in Morocco, entitled “In the Labyrinths of Professor F.N.”

The long list includes four novels from Egypt: “The Origin of Species” by Ahmed Abdel Latif, “The Isolation of the Kangaroo” by Abdel Salam Ibrahim, “A Cloud Above My Head” by Duaa Ibrahim, and “Hiding in a Hamster Wheel” by Issam El-Zayat.

The jury for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction chose three novels from Algeria: “A Sleep of the Nap” by Amin Al-Zawi, “Aghlab of the River Course” by Saeed Khatibi, and “Grandmother Touma’s Rope” by “Abdel-Wahab Issawi.”

Two novels from Lebanon were also included in the long list: “The Absence of Mai” by Najwa Barakat, and “Life is Not a Novel” by Abdo Wazen. The judges chose the Saudi novel by Omaima Al-Khamis, “The Aunt of the Levantine Family,” the Syrian novel by Khalil Sweileh, “The Bride’s Water,” from Oman, “The Blowing of the Wind” by Sharifa Al-Toubi Al-Bairaq, from Iraq, “The Seer” by Diaa Jubaili, and from Yemen, Marwan Al-Ghafouri’s novel Five Houses for God and a Room for My Grandmother. As for the Tunisian Nizar Chaqroun, the long list chose his novel, “The Days of the Murdered Fatimi.”

A statement from the most prominent awards for Arabic fiction said that the “International Prize for Arabic Fiction” received nominations for “137 novels in this session, and the long list was selected by a jury consisting of five members, headed by the Tunisian researcher and critic Muhammad Al-Qadi, and the membership of Shaker Nouri, an Iraqi writer and translator, Diaa Al-Kaabi, a Bahraini academic and critic, Laila Hee Won-baek, an academic from South Korea, and Maya Abu Al-Hayat, a Palestinian writer and translator.”

The award also announced that among the novels that have previously won are novels whose English translation has been published or will be published soon, namely: “A Mask in the Color of the Sky” by Bassem Khandakji, published by Europa Publications in 2026, and “The Exile of the Wanderer” by Zahran Al Qasimi, published by Hobo Publishing House. It will also publish a number of novels that have reached the final stages of the award in the 2025 session: “The Women’s Charter” by Haneen Al Sayegh, published by Interlink Publishing House in 2026, “The Feel of Light” by Nadia Al-Najjar, published by the Emirates Literature Foundation in 2026, and “Songs for the Darkness” by Iman Humaidan, published by Interlink House in 2026.