SWANA Authors

This is All Your Fault

By: Aminah Mae Safi

Narrated by: Kyla Garcia & Aminah Mae Safi

Length: 9 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Set over the course of one day, Aminah Mae Safi's This Is All Your Fault is a smart and voice-driven YA novel that follows three young women determined to save their indie bookstore.

Rinn Olivera is finally going to tell her longtime crush AJ that she's in love with him.

Daniella Korres writes poetry for her own account, but nobody knows it's... Read more

The Cat Man of Aleppo

By: Karim Shamsi-Basha & Irene Latham

Narrated by: Ramsey Faragallah

Length: 15 minutes

Abridged: No

The Caldecott Honor-winning true story of Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel, who in the midst of the Syrian Civil War courageously offered safe haven to Aleppo's abandoned cats.
 

Aleppo's city center no longer echoes with the rich, exciting sounds of copper-pot pounding and traditional sword sharpening. His neighborhood is empty--except for the many cats... Read more

People Like Them

By: Samira Sedira

Narrated by: Susan Nezami

Length: 4 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

A prizewinning, "riveting" (The New York Times Book Review) psychological suspense novel inspired by a true story about a couple in an insular French village whose lives are upended when a family of outsiders moves in.
 
“Icy and chilling . . . In sharply drawn sentences, Sedira summons the beauty of a small French village, and the shocking acts... Read more

The Book of Collateral Damage

By: Sinan Antoon

Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi

Length: 8 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

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

What Strange Paradise

By: Omar El Akkad

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 6 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the widely acclaimed, bestselling author of American War—a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving novel that looks at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child.

"Told from the point of view of two children, on the ground and at sea, the story so astutely... Read more

More Than I Love My Life

By: David Grossman

Narrated by: Gilli Messer

Length: 10 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE • A remarkable novel of suffering, love, and healing—the story of three generations of women on an unlikely journey to a Croatian island and a secret that needs to be told—from the internationally best-selling author of To the End of the Land
 
“A magnificent book ... The way Grossman writes... Read more

Spring

By: Leila Rafei

Narrated by: Negin Farsad

Length: 8 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

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 Tightening Dark

By: Sam Farran & Benjamin Buchholz

Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi

Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

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 Tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman

By: Melanie Magidow

Narrated by: Dalia Ramahi

Length: 6 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

Published in English for the first time, and the only Arabic epic named for a woman, The Tale of Princess Fatima recounts the thrilling adventures of a legendary medieval warrior universally known throughout the Middle East and long overdue to join world literature's pantheon of female heroes.

A Penguin Classic

A fearsome, sword-slinging heroine... Read more

Silence Is a Sense

By: Layla AlAmmar

Narrated by: Laura Sawahla

Length: 8 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

"This is not just good storytelling, but a blueprint for survival." —The New York Times Book Review

A transfixing and beautifully rendered novel about a refugee’s escape from civil war—and the healing power of community.

A young woman sits in her apartment, watching the small daily dramas of her neighbors across the way. She is an outsider, a... Read more

White on White

By: Aysegül Savas

Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers

Length: 3 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

A "marvelous" (Lauren Groff) and "gentle, mysterious and profound” (Marina Abramović) novel about a woman who has come undone.

A student moves to the city to research Gothic nudes, renting an apartment from a painter, Agnes, who lives in another town with her husband. One day, Agnes arrives in the city and settles into the upstairs studio.

In... Read more

Alligator and Other Stories

By: Dima Alzayat

Narrated by: Jeed Saddy

Length: 6 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

The award-winning stories in Dima Alzayat's collection, Alligator and Other Stories, are luminous and tender, whether dealing with a woman preforming burial rites for her brother in "Ghusl," or the great-aunt struggling to explain cultural identity to her niece in "Once We Were Syrians."



Alzayat's stories are rich and relatable, chronicling a... Read more

The Viscount Made Me Do It

By: Diana Quincy

Narrated by: Zara Hampton-Brown

Length: 8 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

Diana Quincy returns with the second novel in her Clandestine Affairs series featuring a steamy romance between a working class London bonesetter who is dangerously attracted to her mysterious noble client.  A seduction that could ruin everything... Hanna Zaydan has fought to become London’s finest bonesetter, but her darkly appealing new... Read more

No Land to Light On

By: Yara Zgheib

Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ali Andre Ali & Suehyla El-Attar

Length: 6 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of The Girls at 17 Swann Street comes a “masterful story of tragedy and redemption” (Hala Alyan, author of Salt Houses) “written in soul-searing prose” (BookPage, starred review) about a young Syrian couple in the throes of new love on the cusp of their bright future when a travel ban rips them apart on the eve of their son’s... Read more

Arab Boy Delivered

By: Paul Aziz Zarou

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

Length: 9 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

As Michael maneuvers through his working-class neighborhood delivering groceries, he enters the homes and lives of his customers. He’s confronted by the school yard and street corner violence of local thugs. With the 1967 Arab-Israeli War fresh in public memory, he passes for Greek or Italian and never summons the courage to explain, exactly,... Read more

Believe Me

By: Tahereh Mafi

Narrated by: James Fouhey

Length: 4 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

The devastatingly romantic fifth novella in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Shatter Me series, chronicling the events after Imagine Me, the explosive sixth novel.Juliette and Warner fought hard to take down the Reestablishment once and for all. Life in the aftermath isn’t easy, as they and their friends at the Sanctuary work with... Read more

Honeybee

By: Naomi Shihab Nye

Narrated by: Naomi Shihab Nye

Length: 2 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

“Nye’s sheer joy in communicating, creativity, and caring shine through.”—Kirkus ReviewsA moving and celebratory poetry collection from Young People’s Poet Laureate and National Book Award Finalist Naomi Shihab Nye. This resonant volume explores the similarities we share with the people around us—family, friends, and complete strangers.Honey.... Read more

Son of Elsewhere

By: Elamin Abdelmahmoud

Narrated by: Elamin Abdelmahmoud

Length: 6 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A “funny and frank” (The New York Times) collection of essays on Blackness, faith, pop culture, and the challenges—and rewards—of finding one’s way in the world, from a BuzzFeed editor and podcast host.

“A memoir that is immense in its desire to give . . . a rich offering of image, of music, of... Read more

Either/Or

By: Elif Batuman

Narrated by: Elif Batuman

Length: 10 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

An instant New York Times bestseller!

A New York Times Notable Book of 2022

“Batuman has a gift for making the universe seem, somehow, like the benevolent and witty literary seminar you wish it were . . .This novel wins you over in a million micro-observations.” —The New York Times

 “Batuman is a genius, rendering human folly at its most colorful... Read more

The Turtle of Michigan

By: Naomi Shihab Nye

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

Length: 4 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

The stand-alone companion to National Book Award Finalist and beloved poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s The Turtle of Oman. The Turtle of Michigan is a deft and accessible novel that follows a young boy named Aref as he travels from Muscat, Oman, to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and adjusts to a new life and a new school in the United States. A wonderful pick for... Read more

Man o' War

By: Cory McCarthy

Narrated by: E.R. Fightmaster

Length: 10 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

A Stonewall Honor Book

An achingly honest and frequently hilarious coming-of-age novel about an Arab American trans teen fighting to keep their head above water in a landlocked Midwestern town.

Man o' wars are not jellyfish, and River McIntyre is not happy. River doesn't know why they're unhappy—though perhaps it has something to do with the way... Read more

These Impossible Things

By: Salma El-Wardany

Narrated by: Shazia Nicholls

Length: 10 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

In this “salacious, incisive, and unapologetically Muslim” (Blair Imani, activist and bestselling author of Read This to Get Smarter) novel, three best friends navigate love, sex, faith—and the one night that changes it all. It’s always been Malak, Kees, and Jenna against the world. Since childhood, under the watchful eyes of their parents,... Read more

Evil Eye

By: Etaf Rum

Narrated by: Vaneh Assadourian & Gail Shalan

Length: 11 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

“A moving meditation on motherhood, inter-generational trauma and how surface appearances often obscure a deeper truth. . . . A stunning second novel from a writer who set the bar very high with her first!”—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and Community BoardThe acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of... 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