International Prize for Arabic Fiction Shortlist Announcement: Tuesday 5 February 2019
31/01/2019

The shortlist for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2019 will be announced between 2.30-3.00pm GMT/ 6.30-7.00pm GST on Tuesday 5 February 2019.
Comprising six novels, it will be chosen by the 2019 judging panel from the longlist of 16 novels all published in Arabic between July 2017 and June 2018.The judging panel is chaired by Charafdin Majdolin and includes Fowziyah AbuKhalid, Zulaikha Aburisha, Zhang HongYi and Latif Zeitouni.
The full 2019 longlist, listed in alphabetical order by author surname, is as follows:
Author |
Title |
Country of origin |
Publisher |
Mohammed Abi Samra |
Women Without Trace |
Lebanon |
Riyad al-Rayyes |
Omaima Abdullah Al-Khamis |
Voyage of the Cranes in the Cities of Agate |
Saudi Arabia |
Dar Al Saqi |
Hoda Barakat |
The Night Mail |
Lebanon |
Dar al-Adab |
Jalal Bargas |
Women of the Five Senses |
Jordan |
Arabic Institute for Research and Publishing |
Adel Esmat |
The Commandments |
Egypt |
Kotob Khan |
Maysalun Hadi |
Mohammed's Brothers |
Iraq |
Dar al-Dhakira |
Haji Jaber |
Black Foam |
Eritrea |
Dar Tanweer, Lebanon |
Inaam Kachachi |
The Outcast |
Iraq |
Dar al-Jadid |
Waciny Laredj |
May — The Nights of Isis Copia |
Algeria |
Dar al-Adab |
Mohammed Al-Maazuz |
What Sin Caused her to Die? |
Morocco |
Cultural Book Centre |
May Menassa |
I Killed My Mother in Order to Live |
Lebanon |
Riyad al-Rayyes |
Mbarek Rabi |
Western Mediterranean |
Morocco |
Arabic Institute for Research and Publishing |
Habib Sayah |
Me and Haim |
Algeria |
Dar Mim |
Shahla Ujayli |
Summer with the Enemy |
Syria |
Difaf Publishing |
Iman Yehia |
The Mexican Wife |
Egypt |
Dar al-Shorouk |
Kafa Al-Zou’bi |
Cold White Sun |
Jordan |
Dar al-Adab |
IPAF is recognised as the leading prize for literary fiction in the Arab world. The six shortlisted finalists will receive $10,000, with a further $50,000 going to the winner. Last year’s winner was The Second War of the Dog by Ibrahim Nasrallah.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is an annual literary prize for prose fiction in Arabic. It is sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and is run with the support, as its mentor, of the Booker Prize Foundation in London.