Kafa Al-Zou'bi

An acclaimed Jordanian novelist, essayist, and literary translator. Having studied civil engineering in Saint Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia, Al-Zou’bi is celebrated as one of the most intellectually rigorous and fearless voices in contemporary Arab letters. She achieved widespread international prominence when her landmark novel Cold White Sun (Shams Bayda’ Barida) was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2019. Author of several acclaimed, translated novels—including Roof of Clay, Laila, Snow and Ludmilla, My Father’s City, Son of Sin, and Return Home, Khalil (first published in Russian in Moscow, 2009, and issued in Arabic by Dar Al-Adab)—Al-Zou’bi is renowned for her existential depth, philosophical precision, and uncompromising examination of class alienation, war trauma, and the human condition under siege.