On Thursday, April 24, 2025, the jury of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the “Arabic Booker”) announced that Egyptian author Mohamed Samir Neda’s novel “The Prayer of Fear” won the 2025 award. The prize was presented during a ceremony in Abu Dhabi ahead of the 34th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
Considered one of the most prestigious literary awards in the Arab world, the prize carries a $50,000 award, with each of the five shortlisted novels receiving $10,000.
Set in the fictional Upper Egyptian village of “Naj’ al-Manasi,” isolated since the 1967 defeat as its residents believe they form the first line of defense against Israel, the novel depicts a mysterious 1977 explosion that transforms the village into a “closed box” living in a parallel time detached from external reality.
The novel offers a symbolic, multi-voiced narrative blending fantasy and history, questioning the narratives of defeat, subsequent illusions of sovereignty, and the era of slogans. Jury chair, Egyptian academic Mona Baker, described it as “a story that evokes existential questions in the reader, making reading a sensory experience with dimensions transcending geography and touching human commonality.”
Born in Baghdad in 1978, Mohamed Samir Neda grew up in a cultural family. His late father, Samir Neda, was an Egyptian writer, and his mother was a cultural official. The family moved between Baghdad, Tripoli, and Cairo, enriching his cultural and human experiences. Despite studying commerce and working in tourism, Neda began writing early, publishing his first novel, “The Kingdom of Malika,” in 2016, followed by “The Whisper of the Walls” in 2021, which drew on his childhood memories in Baghdad, blending reality and fantasy.
Yasser Suleiman, chair of the prize’s board of trustees, praised the novel, stating, “The Prayer of Fear is a marvelous novel in its structure, compelling in its style, enchanting in its poetic language, and gripping in its open content, ensuring its place as one of the significant works of Arab literature in the future.”
The win marks Egypt’s third success in the prize’s history, following Bahaa Taher’s “Sunset Oasis” in 2008 and Yusuf Zidan’s “Azazel” in 2009. Neda is the youngest Egyptian author to win the award.
The 2025 shortlist included six novels: “Danishmand” by Mauritanian Ahmed Fall Din, “Valley of the Butterflies” by Iraqi Azhar Jargis, “The Christian Andalusian” by Syrian Tayseer Khalaf, “The Women’s Pact” by Lebanese Haneen Al-Saigh, “The Touch of Light” by Emirati Nadia Al-Najjar, and the winning “The Prayer of Fear.”
The win of “The Prayer of Fear” marks a pinnacle in a distinguished literary career, spotlighting a new voice in the Arab cultural scene that reexamines history through a symbolic narrative addressing shared human concerns.
