If you’re looking to read more books by MENA/SWANA diaspora, these are some of my must-reads.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

Running a book, movie, and general lifestyle blog is interesting because if you’re paying enough attention to the trends and what exactly you’re watching, you’re going to start picking it apart. For me, as someone who is very dedicated to diversifying the kinds of books I’m reading, I started realizing my trends.

I read a lot of East Asian literature, specifically Korean, which makes sense considering I did my master’s degree focused on Korean women’s literature. It was my area of expertise (specifically in the colonial period), but once I finished up my master’s I wanted to go deeper in other areas of the world.

I am ethnically SWANA (my father is from Iran), and every time I go to the bookstores, I get disappointed when I can’t find Iranian literature in translation as much compared to the European and Asian writers I was reading and getting a steady stream of access to. The only time I ever really encountered these writers in translation was when I went to bookstores like McNally Jackson in New York.

SWANA diaspora literature though is starting to pick up, and I’m here for it. As I see more books published by those from SWANA/MENA ethnically, I want to read them all. I follow the Radius of Arab American Writers (which goes beyond Arab writers—I had to ask them about it). I’ve been trying to read more from the diaspora particularly lately, as I want to consume these kinds of perspectives more and more as the world becomes increasingly polarized.

Here are some of the diaspora writers and books I’ve been enjoying in 2025!

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kemali

I remember when this book was first announced, and I was so hype to read it. I ended up snagging a copy not too long after it released and I flew through it so quickly. I remember because it was the night Trump won the election, and my sister and I were sitting on the couch reading as the polls came in. Right when I finished the book is when the tide began to turn for the worse and our fears were realized.

Anyways, that aside, this is a book about friendship in a quickly changing Iran. Set in the 1950s and 1960s, it documents the relationship between two friends, one from a wealthier familier in with the Tehran establishment, the other whose father is aligned with the social movements. When the politics of the Shah’s Iran start to shift, these two find themselves at a rupture, and if they don’t figure out how to navigate it, then everything might come crashing down.

This is gorgeously written and the two female leads are incredible, memorable characters.

An Unlasting Home by Mai Al-Nakib

I picked this book up when I realized I knew very little about Kuwait. I found out about the book though because during Arab-American History Month my library set up a digital curated section on SWANA writers and books, and I found a lot of other books I had never heard of but wanted to read.

An Unlasting Home takes place across multiple generations in Kuwait. First is the modern day, where one college professor in Kuwait finds herself charged with the crime of blasphemy while leading a philosophy discussion. The present day grapples with her trial and how she chose to come back to Kuwait from the United States, only to find out it’s a completely different country. We then see the perspectives of her ancestors and maid, demonstrating the different ways the country has shifted.

For me, this was an incredible read, especially considering the lack of Kuwaiti voices in American literature and publishing.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

I was sent a digital advance copy of The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami months before its actual release in American bookstores and libraries, and I devoured this book in one sitting. Some advance copies I don’t click with (and I say that in my reviews, or just don’t review them at all), but this one I really enjoyed.

Its protagonist is a naturalized American citizen of Moroccan descent. In a world where the United States is now using technology to scan people and determine whether they are a security threat or not, she finds herself deemed a threat after returning from a trip in LAX. Shipped away from everyone and everything she knows to a facility, she has to get an appropriate score while being monitored.

It was scary how this could easily become our reality, especially for Middle Eastern/SWANA Americans who are returning home. The algorithm is based on our biases, including the racism of whoever built it, so the thought of this becoming real is terrifying.

Liquid: A Love Story by Mariam Rahmani

I was hesitant to pick this one up at first because of the shocking number of bad Goodreads reviews, but I decided to read it anyways because I know Goodreads isn’t reliable for some of the books I enjoy. And I’ll admit: I enjoyed this book a lot and said screw the reviews.

Liquid is a tale in two parts. In the first part, an Indian-Iranian American academic, unable to find a tenure job any time soon, decides to embark on an experiment where she can date as many people as she can. Her goal is to hit 100, and the first section of the novel deocuments how she goes on those dates and who she met. But in the second part, her father is dying in Tehran and she has to return home, healing the rift between her mother and her, as well as realistically grappling her future.

I thought this was such a touching tale, even if the first part was something I would never relate to. The protagonist was genuinely fascinating to me, and I enjoyed reading her story.

Between Two Moons by Aisha Abdel Gawad

This was another book I discovered when my library set up their SWANA/MENA representation book catalogue, and I had checked it out immediately as soon as I got the chance. I sped through reading this one as well, which shows how invested I was in their story.

Set during Ramadan in the sweltering New York heat, two twin sisters, Amira and Lina, watch their brother come home from prison to their family’s Bay Ridge apartment. As they try to uncover their own newfound adulthood and sexuality, they have to not only deal with their issues at home, but Amira, who watches her sister go down a darker path, has to serve as a hero for not only Lina, but herself as well sometimes.

Some might deem their actions as haram and even shameful to read about, but I thought this was an honest story. Not every Muslim daughter ends up going down the same religious pathway, and that’s pretty interesting to read about for me, especially considering they were born and raised in Bay Ridge—which, if you’re familiar with it, is a very Muslim neighborhood.

The Hollow Half by Sarah Aziza

This is the only memoir on this list for now, but it left quite the impression on me. I found this one through the Radius of Arab American Writers and their book roundups, then I put in a hold request at my library and patiently waited for it to arrive.

The Hollow Half is a memoir about identity, eating disorder, and what led Aziza to this point. Not only does she talk about how her eating disorder formed, then got worse as an adult, but she goes in-depth about the treatment and the relapse she had once she was out of the treatment facility. Combined with her discussions about being Palestinian-American, specifically as someone who worked in Palestine and Jordan, and her family was displaced from the Nakba, I thought this was a thoughtful book to read during current times.

I want to read more literature written by Palestinians, whether they’re diaspora or not, and I think this is a great entry to the publishing world. Go pick it up if you want something that is both poetic and heartbreakingly beautiful to read.

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