Our Collection - The Short Story Project

Egypt

My name is Asser, and I’m not a little kid—I’m six years old! I’m a whole year older than my cousin Malika. Just a little while ago, we hid behind the curtain. Of course, we love...

Japanese Watches and Egyptian Cats

Ahmed Tharwat

1 min

Egypt

After the evening prayer, curses came streaming out of Abdel Karim’s mouth, striking the village fathers and mothers and taking in Tantawi and his forebears on the way. The story was that Abdel Karim had hardly...

The Cheapest Nights

Yusuf Idris

6 min

Egypt

You wanted me a slave bought and sold You wanted me in despair joyless. From the poem “Absent” by Palestinian poet Rashid Hussein. *** The distance between one floor and another was months and...

The Seventh Floor

Mohammed Salah Rajeh

3 min

Egypt

Abdul Aal was a tall, dark-skinned plain-clothes policeman. On the back of his right hand he had an open-mouthed fish with a cleft tail and a spot on its eye. Abdul Aal was a detective. Even...

The Treasure

Yusuf Idris

3 min

Egypt

The last thing I decided I would do before going away was to say farewell to my grandma. By noon I was watching Ghasreen, a small town located at the heart of a small valley. It...

The Open Door

Abd al Rahman Munif

26 min