On Thursday, April 24, 2025, the jury of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the \u201cArabic Booker\u201d) announced that Egyptian author Mohamed Samir Neda\u2019s novel \u201cThe Prayer of Fear\u201d won the 2025 award. The prize was presented during a ceremony in Abu Dhabi ahead of the 34th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Set in the fictional Upper Egyptian village of \u201cNaj\u2019 al-Manasi,\u201d 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 \u201cclosed box\u201d living in a parallel time detached from external reality.<\/p>\n
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 \u201ca story that evokes existential questions in the reader, making reading a sensory experience with dimensions transcending geography and touching human commonality.\u201d<\/p>\n
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, \u201cThe Kingdom of Malika,\u201d in 2016, followed by \u201cThe Whisper of the Walls\u201d in 2021, which drew on his childhood memories in Baghdad, blending reality and fantasy.<\/p>\n
Yasser Suleiman, chair of the prize\u2019s board of trustees, praised the novel, stating, \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win marks Egypt\u2019s third success in the prize\u2019s history, following Bahaa Taher\u2019s \u201cSunset Oasis\u201d in 2008 and Yusuf Zidan\u2019s \u201cAzazel\u201d in 2009. Neda is the youngest Egyptian author to win the award.<\/p>\n
The 2025 shortlist included six novels: \u201cDanishmand\u201d by Mauritanian Ahmed Fall Din, \u201cValley of the Butterflies\u201d by Iraqi Azhar Jargis, \u201cThe Christian Andalusian\u201d by Syrian Tayseer Khalaf, \u201cThe Women\u2019s Pact\u201d by Lebanese Haneen Al-Saigh, \u201cThe Touch of Light\u201d by Emirati Nadia Al-Najjar, and the winning \u201cThe Prayer of Fear.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win of \u201cThe Prayer of Fear\u201d 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Thursday, April 24, 2025, the jury of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the \u201cArabic Booker\u201d) announced that Egyptian author Mohamed Samir Neda\u2019s novel \u201cThe Prayer of Fear\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":987500842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","jnews_video_option_group":[[]],"override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar-narrow","sidebar":"archiv","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"float","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":{"override_bookmark_button":"0","override_show_bookmark_button":"0"},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-987500846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987500846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987500846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987500846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987500847,"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987500846\/revisions\/987500847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/987500842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987500846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987500846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divancentre.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987500846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}