Arabic

Everyday conversations in spoken Levantine Arabic — the language people actually use, not the written standard.

Short vocalised passages written for a first reader of Modern Standard Arabic.

Short prose poems on love and loss, from the Lebanese writer known abroad for The Prophet.

Fables of a jackal at a lion's court, told to teach princes how power really works. The founding classic of Arabic prose.

Essays and sketches on Egyptian life at the turn of the century, in deliberately ornate prose.