Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour (1946-2014) is one of only 12 women writers to have made the Arab Writers Union’s list of the Top 105 Arabic Novels of the twentieth century. She makes our Women in Translation Month list of must-read women authors:

As Marina Warner wrote after Ashour’s death in 2014, “Radwa Ashour was a powerful voice among Egyptian writers of the postwar generation and a writer of exceptional integrity and courage. Her work consistently engages with her country’s history and reflects passionately upon it.”

Ashour made the Arab Writers Union’s “top 105” list with her celebrated Granada, the first of a trilogy, translated by William Granara.  The novel interleaves the story of Granada during the time of Christopher Columbus — a time of extreme religious persecution — but is also a story of books and book-lovers, and the bookbinder Abu Jaafar.