BOOKS
The Origin of Species
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION 2026 & BY SAWIRIS AWARD WINNER AHMAD ABDULATIF.
Welcome to a Kafkaesque, surrealist Cairo undergoing a terrifying mutation. Written in a breathless, unpunctuated stream-of-consciousness style that sweeps the reader along like a flood, Ahmed Abdul Latif’s novel explores a disintegrating metropolis. Moving between the Al-Manial neighborhood and the City of the Dead, we follow mutated characters whose physical deformities mirror their moral fragmentation under state oppression. Drawing a brilliant parallel with Darwinian evolution, this experimental masterpiece is a dark, satirical critique of human hubris and forced modernity.
Ahmad Abdulatif
A graphic allegory of the classism that exists in Egyptian societyA multilayered novel of a world that comes together as it comes apartAn imprisoned psychologist writes about his relationship with FelliniAn investigation of the life of a lost Egyptian writerConfessions of a penitent turn into a nightmarish journey and end in imprisonment.Funny stories from the Coptic kitchenHorror in an Egyptian villageSalwa has been translated to 17 languagesShortlisted for the Sawiris Cultural Award for Best Novel in 2018Stories that build up to construct a surreal thrillerThe different layers of a relationship between a son and his fatherThe fall of the Islamic civilisation in al-Andalus and one Morisco familyThe mysterious death of a monk at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in SinaiThe saga of Egyptians in 19th-century revolutionary FranceThe world of antiquities and drug dealers in the marginalised society of Upper EgyptWhen crime and religion intersect in Upper EgyptWinner of the Arab Thought Foundation Award 2016Winner of the best novel award at the Cairo International Book fair in 2017, 2020Winner of the Sharjah Award for The Best Arabic Novel 2014Won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2014. Shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2015Won the Sawiris Cultural Award for Best Novel 2019 Shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2019Won the Sawiris Emerging Writers Prize for Best Novel in 2014Won the Sawiris Prize for Best Novel in 2020
An acclaimed Egyptian novelist, Spanish-to-Arabic translator, and journalist based in Madrid. Abdulatif holds degrees in Spanish Literature from Cairo University and an MA in Comparative Literature from the Autonomous University of Madrid. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious literary honors, including the Egyptian State Encouragement Prize (2011) for his debut novel The Key Maker, the Sawiris Cultural Award for The Sculptor’s Book and The Kingdom of Mark Zuckerberg, and the National Center for Translation Award. Having translated over forty major literary works from Spanish into Arabic, Abdulatif is celebrated for his masterfully inventive, fable-like narratives that dissect political power, memory, and existential isolation. He was twice longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for Fort of Dust (2018) and Daniel’s Eras in the City of Threads (2023), before being shortlisted in 2026 for The Origin of Species.
FEATURED BOOKS
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Years of Freckles
