SWANA Authors
Listen to audiobooks by authors of South West Asian and/or North African descent.


A Woman Is No Man
By: Etaf Rum
Narrated by: Ariana Delawari, Dahlia Salem & Susan Nezami
Length: 10 hours 15 minutes
Abridged: No
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A Washington Post 10 Books to Read in March • A Marie Claire Best Women’s Fiction of 2019 • A Washington Book Review Difficult-To-Put-Down Novel • A Refinery 29 Best Books of the Month • An Electric Lit 20 Best Debuts of the... Read more
View audiobook

We Hunt the Flame
By: Hafsah Faizal
Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham & Steve West
Length: 14 hours 44 minutes
Abridged: No
"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


The Final Strife
By: Saara El-Arifi
Narrated by: Nicole Lewis & Dominic Hoffman
Length: 19 hours 47 minutes
Abridged: No
In the first book of a visionary fantasy trilogy with its roots in the mythology of Africa and Arabia that “sings of rebellion, love, and the courage it takes to stand up to tyranny” (Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree), three women band together against a cruel empire that divides people by blood.
“A game-changing new... Read more


As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
By: Zoulfa Katouh
Narrated by: Rasha Zamamiri
Length: 12 hours 16 minutes
Abridged: No
A love letter to Syria and its people, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a speculative novel set amid the Syrian Revolution, burning with the fires of hope, love, and possibility. Perfect for fans of The Book Thief and Salt to the Sea.
Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents... Read more


All This Twisted Glory
By: Tahereh Mafi
Narrated by: Kate Reading
Length: 11 hours 30 minutes
Abridged: No
A New York Times bestselling series!The highly anticipated third novel in the Woven Kingdom romantasy series, full of powerful magic, searing romance, and heartbreaking betrayal, from the award-winning and bestselling author of the Shatter Me series. Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Leigh Bardugo, and Sabaa Tahir.As the long-lost heir to the... Read more
View audiobook

American War
By: Omar El Akkad
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 12 hours 21 minutes
Abridged: No
“Powerful . . . As haunting a postapocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy [created] in The Road, and as devastating a look as the fallout that national events have on an American family as Philip Roth did in The Plot Against America. . . . Omar El Akkad’s debut novel, American War, is an unlikely mash-up of unsparing war reporting and plot... Read more
View audiobook

Rouge
By: Mona Awad
Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
Length: 14 hours 42 minutes
Abridged: No
A National Bestseller
A USA TODAY Bestseller
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, Electric Literature, Tor, and Literary Hub
From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a “Grimm Brothers fairy tale for the modern age” (Good... Read more


All's Well
By: Mona Awad
Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
Length: 13 hours 8 minutes
Abridged: No
From the author of Bunny, which Margaret Atwood hails as “genius,” comes a “wild, and exhilarating” (Lauren Groff) novel about a theater professor who is convinced staging Shakespeare’s most maligned play will remedy all that ails her—but at what cost?
Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting... Read more


Other Words for Home
By: Jasmine Warga
Narrated by: Vaneh Assadourian
Length: 3 hours 49 minutes
Abridged: No
New York Times bestseller and Newbery Honor Book!
A gorgeously written, hopeful middle grade novel in verse about a young girl who must leave Syria to move to the United States, perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Aisha Saeed.Jude never thought she’d be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria.... Read more


Once There Was
By: Kiyash Monsef
Narrated by: Nikki Massoud
Length: 11 hours 42 minutes
Abridged: No
An Odyssey Award Finalist
A New York Times bestseller!
A Morris Award Finalist
Impossible Creatures meets Neil Gaiman in this “striking and heartfelt” (Kirkus Reviews) novel about an Iranian American girl who discovers that her father was secretly a veterinarian to magical creatures—and that she must take up his mantle, despite the many... Read more


Whichwood
By: Tahereh Mafi
Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
Length: 7 hours 5 minutes
Abridged: No
Embark on a wondrous journey through the land of Whichwood in this stunning companion to Tahereh Mafi’s acclaimed bestseller Furthermore.
A Kirkus Best Book of the Year!
★ "Deliciously descriptive prose. . . . Darkly fascinating." −Kirkus
★ "Unforgettable heroine." −Booklist
★ "Mafi's language choices create visually arresting moments." –Shelf... Read more


A Month in Siena
By: Hisham Matar
Narrated by: Hisham Matar
Length: 3 hours 23 minutes
Abridged: No
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Return comes a profoundly moving contemplation of the relationship between art and life.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND EVENING STANDARD
After finishing his powerful memoir The Return, Hisham Matar, seeking solace and pleasure, traveled to Siena, Italy. Always... Read more


Walking on the Ceiling
By: Aysegül Savas
Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
Length: 3 hours 47 minutes
Abridged: No
"[Savaş] writes with both sensuality and coolness, as if determined to find a rational explanation for the irrationality of existence..." -- The New York Times
"I fell in love with this book." -- Katie Kitamura, author of A Separation
A mesmerizing novel set in Paris and a changing Istanbul, about a young Turkish woman grappling with her past and... Read more


Darius the Great Is Not Okay
By: Adib Khorram
Narrated by: Michael Levi Harris
Length: 7 hours 33 minutes
Abridged: No
Darius doesn't think he'll ever be enough, in America or in Iran. Hilarious and heartbreaking, this unforgettable debut introduces a brilliant new voice in contemporary YA.
Winner of the William C. Morris Debut Award
“Heartfelt, tender, and so utterly real. I’d live in this book forever if I could.”
—Becky Albertalli, award-winning author of... Read more


Starstruck
By: Sarafina El-Badry Nance
Narrated by: Sarafina El-Badry Nance
Length: 10 hours 45 minutes
Abridged: No
In a beautifully written, science-packed, and inspirational memoir, Egyptian-American astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance shares how she boldly carved out a place in the field of astrophysics, grounding herself in a lifelong love of the stars to face life’s inevitable challenges and embrace the unknown.
As a child, Sarafina El-Badry Nance... Read more


This Woven Kingdom
By: Tahereh Mafi
Narrated by: Kate Reading
Length: 13 hours 21 minutes
Abridged: No
New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller from the acclaimed author of the Shatter Me series! Clashing empires, forbidden romance, and a long-forgotten queen destined to save her people—Tahereh Mafi’s first in an epic romantasy series inspired by Persian mythology.To all the world, Alizeh is a disposable servant, not the... Read more
View audiobook

Home Is Not a Country
By: Safia Elhillo
Narrated by: Safia Elhillo & Christopher Myers
Length: 3 hours 10 minutes
Abridged: No
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD; A CORETTA SCOTT KING HONOR BOOK
“Nothing short of magic.” —Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X
From the acclaimed poet featured on Forbes Africa’s “30 Under 30” list, this powerful novel-in-verse captures one girl, caught between cultures, on an unexpected journey to face the... Read more


White Tears/Brown Scars
By: Ruby Hamad
Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
Length: 7 hours 2 minutes
Abridged: No
Called "powerful and provocative" by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the New York Times bestselling How to be an Antiracist, this explosive book of history and cultural criticism reveals how white feminism has been used as a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women, and women of color.
Taking us from the... Read more


Love Is an Ex-Country
By: Randa Jarrar
Narrated by: Randa Jarrar
Length: 5 hours 46 minutes
Abridged: No
Queer. Muslim. Arab American. A proudly Fat woman. Randa Jarrar is all of these things. In this provocative memoir of a cross-country road trip, she explores how to claim joy in an unraveling and hostile America.
Randa Jarrar is a fearless voice of dissent who has been called "politically incorrect" (Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times). As an... Read more


A Pure Heart
By: Rajia Hassib
Narrated by: Ariana Delawari
Length: 10 hours 20 minutes
Abridged: No
"Hassib, herself an Egyptian immigrant living in West Virginia, articulates the full-bodied chorus of Egypt's voices."
--The New York Times Book Review
"Exquisite. . . . Anchoring the story is a pair of Cairo-born sisters whose fates spin in radically different directions in the wake of the Egyptian revolution. . . . A lovely novel that does a... Read more


The Parisian
By: Isabella Hammad
Narrated by: Fiona Button
Length: 20 hours 17 minutes
Abridged: No
A masterful debut novel by Plimpton Prize winner Isabella Hammad, The Parisian illuminates a pivotal period of Palestinian history through the journey and romances of one young man, from his studies in France during World War I to his return to Palestine at the dawn of its battle for independence. Midhat Kamal is the son of a wealthy textile... Read more
View audiobook

The Twenty-Ninth Year
By: Hala Alyan
Narrated by: Hala Alyan
Length: 1 hour 13 minutes
Abridged: No
"This is the stuff of life, the very essence of the poetic." —LitHub
For Hala Alyan, twenty-nine is a year of transformation and upheaval, a year in which the past—memories of family members, old friends and past lovers, the heat of another land, another language, a different faith—winds itself around the present. Hala's ever-shifting, subversive... Read more


Everything Comes Next
By: Naomi Shihab Nye
Narrated by: Naomi Shihab Nye & James Patrick Cronin
Length: 3 hours 8 minutes
Abridged: No
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
View audiobook

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
By: Laila Lalami
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
Length: 4 hours 1 minute
Abridged: No
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
Bookstore Map
Discover Black, Latine, Indigenous, API, LGBTQIA+, Disabled, and author-owned bookstores to support today by using the filters on our Bookstore Map.
See the map