A Locus of Wayfaring Energies: Contemporary Maghrebi Fiction in Translation

It seems pointless to attempt to make generalizations about the Maghreb, a variegated region usually taken to comprise Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. Reading contemporary fiction in English translation – whether novels or short stories – can offer us valuable glimpses into the Maghreb’s wonders across shared histories, traditions and spaces. Below, I’ve included work translated from both Arabic and French, though there is of course much more that has yet to be brought into English. The narratives contained in these texts range over a wide variety of time periods, from pre-colonial desert mythologies to post-independence disillusionment and timely issues such as Islamophobia. Many of them are self-aware and defy conventional...