On January 7, 2025, the organizers of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) announced the 16-book longlist for this year’s competition. Widely regarded as one of the most prestigious awards for Arabic-language novels, the IPAF is often compared to the “Booker Prize” for its influence and international reach.
This year’s longlist comprises twelve authors who are new to the prize and four who have been recognized before. Two of the listed novels are slated for publication in English in 2025: Songs for the Darkness by Iman Humaydan (to be published by Interlink, translated by Michelle Hartman) and Safe Corridors by Jan Dost (Dar Arab, translated by Marilyn Booth). As of now, none of the featured novels has a confirmed publication in French or Spanish.
The 16 novels on the 2025 longlist are:
Aqeel Almusawi, The Weepers (Bahrain, Takween – Kuwait), Inam Bioud, Houwariya (Algeria, Dar Mim), Rashid al-Daif, What Zeina Saw and What She Didn’t (Lebanon, Dar Al Saqi), Ahmed Vall Ould Dine, Danshmand (Mauritania, Masciliana), Jan Dost, The French Prisoner (Syria, Dar Al Saqi), Sausan Jamil Hasan, Heiress of the Keys (Syria, Al-Rabie Publications), Iman Humaydan, Songs for the Darkness (Lebanon, Dar Al Saqi), Azher Jirjees, The Valley of the Butterflies (Iraq, Dar al-Rafidain), Hasan Kamal, The Stolen Novel (Egypt, Diwan), Taissier Khalaf, The Andalusian Messiah (Syria, Al-Mutawassit), Ahmed Al-Malawany, Happy Dreams (Egypt, Kotopia), Mohamed Samir Nada, The Prayer of Anxiety (Egypt, Masciliana), Nadia Najar, The Touch of Light (UAE, Al-Mutawassit), Haneen Al-Sayegh, The Women’s Charter (Lebanon, Dar al-Adab), Sumar Shihada, My Life Has Just Begun (Syria, Dar al-Karma), Ayman Ragab Taher, The Lamplighter (Egypt, Kayyan).
Selected from 124 submissions, the 16 novels reflect a variety of narrative styles. Several explore historical figures (including Imam Al-Ghazali and Pierre Amédée Jaubert, Napoléon’s translator), while others offer snapshots of life in Syria before 2011 or delve into the Morisco period in Andalusia. Topics range from women’s struggles under patriarchal societies to political repression, sometimes conveyed with humor to make difficult subjects more accessible.
The six-book shortlist will be announced on February 19 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and the winner of the US$50,000 prize will be revealed on the eve of the Abu Dhabi Book Fair in late April. Readers can visit the official IPAF website, arabicfiction.org, for more information and updates.
