Allah's Spacious Earth - (Middle East Literature in Translation) by Omar Sayfo (Paperback)

About the Book

"Originally published in Hungarian in 2018, Sayfo's dystopian novel is set in an imagined yet realistic future where Islamophobia and political pressure lead to the Muslim community being cut off from the rest of society"--

Book Synopsis

Allah's Spacious Earth is a stunningly fresh and timely political dystopia that depicts the tragic yet very real consequences of tensions between majority populations and Muslim minorities in the Western world. The novel is set in an imagined future where anti-Muslim sentiment and political pressure lead to a community being cut off from the rest of society. Told from the perspective of Nasim, a young Muslim living in the Zone--an urban area within one of the states forming the Pan-European Federation--the story follows his journey as he struggles with the restrictions imposed upon him along with the expectations of his community.

In the tradition of Michel Houellbecq's Submission, Allah's Spacious Earth is a powerful novel of ideas that brilliantly captures a growing fear in Western societies and its devastating fallout.

Review Quotes

Sayfo has written a fascinating alternate history about the coming into power of a populist party somewhere in Europe. The story is told from the point of view of an assimilated Muslim migrant and has all the appearance of a realistic succession of events without any pathos nor moral judgement. An approach that calls to mind the best of Albert Camus.-- "Olivier Roy, author of In Search of the Lost Orient"

A captivating page turner with a truly fascinating narrative. . . . The translation is very elegant, confident, and readable.-- "Zsuzsanna Varga, University of Glasgow"

About the Author

Omar Sayfo is a Syrian-Hungarian journalist and expert on Middle Eastern media at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Utrecht University. He is the author of several books, including Arab Animation: Images of Identity.

Paul Olchváry has translated more than ten books from Hungarian, including György Dragomán's novel The White King. He has received translation awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, and Hungary's Milán Füst Foundation. His shorter translations have appeared in The Paris Review, The Hungarian Quarterly, and turnrow.