Audiobooks for Arab American Heritage Month

The House of Wisdom

How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance

By: Jim al-Khalili
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Length: 10 hours 26 minutes

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

We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I

A Palestinian Memoir

By: Raja Shehadeh
Narrated by: Peter Ganim
Length: 5 hours 8 minutes

2023 National Book Award Finalist for NonfictionA subtle psychological portrait of the author’s relationship with his father during the twentieth-century battle for Palestinian human rightsAziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee. He was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this searingly... Read more

Bride of the Sea

By: Eman Quotah
Narrated by: Lameece Issaq
Length: 7 hours 19 minutes

During a snowy Cleveland February, newlyweds Muneer and Saeedah are starting their lives in America and expecting their first child. But Muneer harbors a secret: the word divorce has begun whispering itself in his ear. Soon, their marriage will end, and Muneer will return to Saudi Arabia, while Saeedah remains in Cleveland with their daughter,... Read more

We Hunt the Flame

Sands of Arawiya: Book #1

By: Hafsah Faizal
Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham & Steve West
Length: 14 hours 44 minutes

"Narrators Fiona Hardingham and Steve West lend their exceptional vocal skills to this fantasy novel...Both narrators deliver commanding performances steeped in drama and suspense, drawing out every ounce of emotion and intrigue: — AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

Set in a richly detailed world inspired by ancient Arabia, Hafsah... Read more

Headscarves and Hymens

Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution

By: Mona Eltahawy
Narrated by: Mona Eltahawy
Length: 5 hours 38 minutes

A passionate manifesto decrying misogyny in the Arab world, by an Egyptian American journalist and activist

When the Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy published an article in Foreign Policy magazine in 2012 titled "Why Do They Hate Us?" it provoked a firestorm of controversy. The response it generated, with more than four thousand posts on the... Read more

We Free the Stars

Sands of Arawiya: Book #2

By: Hafsah Faizal
Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham & Steve West
Length: 17 hours 55 minutes

The second audiobook in the Sands of Arawiya duology by the masterful Hafsah Faizal—the follow-up to the smash New York Times bestselling novel We Hunt the Flame.

Darkness surged in his veins. Power bled from her bones.

The battle on Sharr is over. The Arz has fallen. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan’s Keep,... Read more

The Stardust Thief

By: Chelsea Abdullah
Narrated by: Nikki Massoud, Sean Rohani & Rasha Zamamiri
Length: 15 hours 37 minutes

Inspired by stories from One Thousand and One Nights, this book weaves together the gripping tale of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince, and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp.Neither here nor there, but long ago . . . Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn... Read more

The Book of Collateral Damage

By: Sinan Antoon
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
Length: 8 hours 29 minutes

Sinan Antoon returns to the Iraq war in a poetic and provocative tribute to reclaiming memory



Widely-celebrated author Sinan Antoon's fourth and most sophisticated novel follows Nameer, a young Iraqi scholar earning his doctorate at Harvard, who is hired by filmmakers to help document the devastation of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During the... Read more

Between Two Moons

A Novel

By: Aisha Abdel Gawad
Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar Young
Length: 11 hours 34 minutes

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE, THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD, & THE BROOKYLN PUBLIC LIBRARY PRIZE • Set in the Arab immigrant enclave of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, following three siblings coming of age over the course of one Ramadan, "a moving look at family, survival, and celebration" (Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in... Read more

Spring

A Novel

By: Leila Rafei
Narrated by: Negin Farsad
Length: 8 hours 45 minutes

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 Home That Was Our Country

A Memoir of Syria

By: Alia Malek
Narrated by: Alia Malek
Length: 12 hours 28 minutes

At the Arab Spring's hopeful start, Alia Malek returned to Damascus to reclaim her grandmother's apartment, which had been lost to her family since Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. Its loss was central to her parent's decision to make their lives in America. In chronicling the people who lived in the Tahaan building, past and present, Alia... Read more

A Pure Heart

A Novel

By: Rajia Hassib
Narrated by: Ariana Delawari
Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

“A journalist's good intentions lead to tragedy during Egypt's revolution. Moving and timely. Read more

The Prophet, & The Wanderer

By: Khalil Gibran
Narrated by: Robert Glenister
Length: 3 hours 42 minutes

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) was Lebanese by birth but spent a major part of his life in America in the early part of the twentieth century. He wrote many collections of stories with a wise or whimsical tone, but none more popular than The Prophet, his first collection, or The Wanderer, his final anthology. They are read here with great sympathy... Read more

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

By: Laila Lalami
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
Length: 4 hours 1 minute

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

Everything Comes Next

Collected and New Poems

By: Naomi Shihab Nye
Narrated by: Naomi Shihab Nye & James Patrick Cronin
Length: 3 hours 8 minutes

Beloved and acclaimed poet Naomi Shihab Nye is the current Young People’s Poet Laureate, serving until August 2021. This celebratory book collects in one volume her most popular and accessible poems from the past forty years. Featuring new, never-before-published poems, an introduction by bestselling poet and author Edward Hirsch, as well as a... Read more

The Thirty Names of Night

A Novel

By: Zeyn Joukhadar
Narrated by: Samy Figaredo & Lameece Issaq
Length: 9 hours 29 minutes

“Great story with trans* and non-binary main and secondary characters about migration (from Syria to the USA), identity, finding a name, love, sexuality and friendship. Read more

Mirage

A Novel

Mirage Series: Book #1

By: Somaiya Daud
Narrated by: Rasha Zamamiri
Length: 8 hours 58 minutes

“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

The Map of Salt and Stars

By: Zeyn Joukhadar
Narrated by: Lara Sawalha
Length: 12 hours 17 minutes

“Scheherazade's The Thousand and One Nights meets Alan Gratz's Refugee in this important debut novel. A 12th century fable about an apprentice mapmaker is interwoven with a modern-day Syrian refugee searching for home. The plot follows both girls through the Middle East, encountering tremendous dangers and immense kindness. A must-read for adults... Read more

The Tightening Dark

An American Hostage in Yemen

By: Sam Farran & Benjamin Buchholz
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

This riveting memoir follows a Lebanese-Muslim-American and thirty-year US Marine veteran who suffered a six-month ordeal at the hands of a brutal regime in Yemen—and remained loyal to his country through it all. As air strikes carpeted Yemen's capital, Sam Farran was one of only a few Americans in the war-ravaged country. He was there to... Read more

The Blood of Flowers

A Novel

By: Anita Amirrezvani
Narrated by: Shohreh Aghdashloo
Length: 13 hours 16 minutes

A sensuous and richly-imagined historical novel that centers on a skilled young carpet weaver, her arranged marriage, and her quest for self-determination in 17th-century Persia.

In 17th-century Iran, a 14-year-old woman believes she will be married within the year. But when her beloved father dies, she and her mother find themselves alone and... Read more