Ursula Lindsey

Mohamed Choukri’s Unromantic Tangier

The Moroccan writer’s works are a bracing corrective to the myth of his city as a glamorous, bohemian playground.

Joy and Apprehension in Syria

There is widespread relief after Assad’s fall, though no one is more aware than Syrians themselves of the dangers and challenges that await them.

‘Hamlet’ in the West Bank

In Isabella Hammad’s Enter Ghost, an intrepid group of Palestinians stages Shakespeare’s tale of usurpation, suspicion, and revenge.

The Ghost in the Labyrinth

Inspired by the disgrace and silencing of an African novelist half a century ago, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s The Most Secret Memory of Men both satirizes and embraces an overwrought belief in literature.

Jordan’s Balancing Act

In Amman, the regime is trying both to channel popular outrage over the bombardment of Gaza and to keep it in check.

Lebanon’s Chernobyl

Lamia Ziadé’s illustrated book about the 2020 port explosion in Beirut is a personal, impassioned account of a crime committed against the Lebanese people.

Whose Streets?

“For the Sisi regime Tahrir is a dangerous place from which the memory of the uprising needs to be erased. It belongs to the state now, and no one else.”

Rape and Resistance in Egypt

A new book recounts the heroics of activists who organized to protect women from sexual violence during the Egyptian revolution and to assert their right to participate in the country’s political life.

‘Focus on the Football’

This year’s World Cup in Qatar has become both a referendum on its host’s human rights record and a space for competing gestures of solidarity. 

A Painful In-Betweenness

Syrian novelists attempt to balance the obligation to not let the world forget what happened in their country with their doubts that telling stories of the war will make a difference to its victims.

Refusing Silence in Egypt

Even as the Sisi regime tries to obliterate the story of the Arab Spring, some Egyptian writers remain committed to its memory and ideals.

In the Fire

The Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi fearlessly told unpleasant truths about discrimination against women in Arab countries.

Ancient Egypt for the Egyptians

Europeans made—and carried away—many of the most famous discoveries of the “Golden Age of Egyptology,” but Egyptians today are beginning to reclaim their own past.

Me Too in Egypt & Morocco

In both countries, burgeoning movements to hold men accountable for sexual violence have led to new waves of repression.

Jordan’s Endless Transition

The government’s efforts to preempt dissent and mass mobilization may keep Jordan quiet, but they are unlikely to solve its current crisis.

Family Values

The women in Leila Slimani’s novels are unhappy.

Pandemic Journal, March 23–29

Brief dispatches by New York Review writers documenting the coronavirus outbreak around the world, including Michael Greenberg in Brooklyn, Raquel Salas Rivera in San Juan, Aida Alami in Paris, Rahmane Idrissa in Niamey, and more.

‘This Land Is Mine’

Lebanon Asks: ‘Which Is Stronger, Sect or Hunger?’

“If you are pessimistic you can say that sectarianism will be back with a vengeance,” said Karim Emile Bitar, a political science professor. And if you’re optimistic? “We are witnessing the emergence of a post-sectarian Lebanon.” 

Egypt: Between Order and Chaos

“Ordinary Egyptians are forced to skirt the law just to get things done, making them complicit and vulnerable; if they actually challenge the status quo, they face overwhelming state violence.”