Includes bibliographical references.

THE PIONEERS. The highway robber / Marun ʻAbboud -- The little gods / Dhannoun Ayyoub -- The snake / Mahmoud Badawi -- My sleepless nights / ʻAli al-Duʻaji -- The mailman / Tawfiq al-Hakim -- The divining stones / Yahya Haqqi -- Grace / Jaʻfar al-Khalili -- "Hello" / Mahmoud Taher Lashin -- How I became a demon of the Jinn / Ibrahim ʻAbd al-Qadir al-Mazini -- The ʻUmda in the tavern / Muhammad al-Muwailihi -- Um Yaʻqub's chickens / Mikhaʼil Nuʻaima -- False teeth / Jamal Sleem Nuweihed -- How misery was born / Fuʼad al-Shayib -- The elements of the ablution / Mahmoud Taymour --

SHORT STORIES. Fury / Amina ʻAbdallah -- Who'll hang the bell? / Yahya Taher ʻAbdallah -- The tree and the birds / Ibrahim ʻAbd al-Majeed -- The illusion / Muhammad ʻAbd al-Malik -- The birthday party / ʻAbd al-llah ʻAbd al-Qadir -- Al-Sayyid Majid / Muhammad ʻAbd al-Wali -- The Cloud ; Qais's road begins here / Jamal Abu Hamdan -- People and love / Abu al-Maʻati Abu al-Naja -- The alien farmer ; Temptation / ʻAbd al-Hameed Ahmad -- The next step / Daisy al-Amir -- The banquet / Yusuf Habashi al-Ashqar -- In search of an address / Ibrahim Aslan -- The trial / Saʻid ʻAulaqi -- The widow / Tawfiq Yusuf ʻAwwad -- The locksmith / Shukry ʻAyyad -- Vengeance / Muhammad ʻAziza -- Tears for sale / Samira ʻAzzam -- From mare to mouse / Layla Baʻalbaki -- Colors / Liana Badr -- Tanyus on earth and Tanyus in heaven / Shawqi Baghdadi -- Doves on the wing ; Little things do matter / Salwa Bakr -- The tale of the severed head / Muhammad Barrada -- A game of pursuit / Muhammad al-Busati -- A woman / Zayd Muteeʻ Dammaj -- The windows / Zaki Darwish -- The death of the cane / Harib al-Dhahiri -- Lighter than angels / Lutfiyya al-Dulaimi -- Love me tonight / Ahmad Ibrahim al-Faqih -- Who knows? Maybe-- / Mustafa al-Farisi -- Shoulders / Ilyas Farkouh -- Uncle, please help me get across / Ghaʼib Tuʻma Farman -- The reward / Jamal Fayiz -- The gray-colored vehicle / Sulaiman Fayyad -- The autumn of life / Khalil al-Fuzayyiʻ -- The engagement present / Fat-hi Ghanim -- The man who saw his own funeral / Nadia Ghazzi -- An enlightenment to the people of this world / Gamal al-Ghitani -- Heart failure / Huzama Habayib -- The Mandelbaum Gate / Emile Habiby -- A midnight visit / Ghalib Halasa -- Cain suffocates the moon / ʻAbd al-ʻAl al-Hamamsi -- That village on that morning / Akram Haniyyah -- How my grandmother was murdered ; Morning in the city / Jameel Hatmal -- The dance of the savage prairies / Haydar Haydar -- An oil painting / Gamil ʻAtiyya Ibrahim -- The charm ; The women's public bath / Ilfat Idilbi -- Nadia's image / Suhail Idris -- The bet ; An Egyptian Mona Lisa ; A Very Egyptian story / Yusuf Idris -- Madman ; The merry night of the dog / Walid Ikhlasi -- The strange world of a toy store / Ismaʻil Fahd Ismaʻil --

Farewell: a crown of grass / Abdu Jubair -- This hardship will pass / Nasir Jubran -- The beautician and the bride / Saʻid al-Kafrawi -- If you'd been a horse / Ghassan Kanafani -- The tram of life / Fuʼad Kanʻan -- Layla / Wadad ʻAbd al-Latif al-Kawwari -- The takers / Bushra Khalfan -- Summer / Shakir Khasbak -- Autumn clouds / Burhan al-Khatib -- Clocks like horses / Muhammad Khudayyir -- The pact / Ibrahim al-Koni -- One summer / Musa Kraidi -- Thirst / Hasan al-Lawzi -- Rendezvous ; Under a starlit sky / Naguib Mahfouz -- Blue fly ; The girls' ward / Muhammad Makhzanji -- The case / ʻAli al-Makk -- Crossing over / ʻAlya Mamdouh -- The billy goat and the menfolk / Samira al-Manaʻ -- The autumn of '81 / Hassouna Misbahi -- Smiling as large as life ; Video / Muhammad al-Murr -- Departure and return / Sabri Musa -- The dog ; Sent with the bearer / ʻAbd al-ʻAziz al-Mushri -- Matches to dry wood / Mai Muzaffar -- The miracle / Emily Nasrallah -- The wolf / ʻAbdallah al-Nasser -- The waitress, the newspaper boy, and the spring / ʻAbd al-Malik Nouri -- News on the radio / Ghalia Qabbani -- The sound of footsteps / Muntasir al-Qaffash -- Rabab gives up drawing / Yusuf al-Qaʻid -- A winter night / ʻAbd al-Hakeem Qasim -- Lord of my times ; You might get rich today / Fakhri Qaʻwar -- Zinah / Mubarak Rabiʻ -- Not only the hyena / Hani al-Rahib -- The final message / Hasan Rasheed -- Abu Richard / Muʻnis al-Razzaz -- The child ; The dog ; God and the fish / Yasin Rifaʻiyya -- An incident in the Ghobashi household / Alifa Rifʻat -- The train / Mahmoud al-Rimawi -- The kingdom of bulls / ʻAbd al-Rahman Majid al-Rubaiʻi -- The fire within / ʻAbdallah Rukaibi -- The pit / Noura al-Saʻd -- The demise of His Excellency the Minister / Nawal al-Saʻdawi -- She and I / Hadia Saʻid -- The barricade / Amin Salih -- The barrier / Salima Salih -- The Cypriot man / Tayyib Salih -- Reactions / George Salim -- The meeting / Ibrahim Samuʼil -- Fresh blood / Mahdi ʻIssa Saqr -- The hymn / Salma Matar Sayf [Maryam Abu Shibab] -- Ordeal by fire / Mahmoud Shaheen -- The women's swimming pool / Hanan al-Shaykh -- The interrogation / Muhammad al-Sharikh -- Briefly / Yusuf Sharouni -- Obsession / Sulaiman al-Shatti -- The evening walk / Muhammad ʻAli Taha -- The engagement / Bahaʼ Tahir -- The truth / Fuʼad al-Takarli -- The beards ; What took place in the city that was asleep ; Love ; Tigers on the tenth day / Zakaria Tamir -- In search of a wilderness / Sahar Tawfiq -- The joker / Maguid Tobia -- The death of Muhammad Ben Ahmad Hinti / ʻAbd al-Salam al-ʻUjaili -- Going on a journey ; The damned insinuation / Layla al-ʻUthman -- The secret / Faruq Wadi -- The martyrs are returning this week / Al-Taher Wattar -- The death of the good citizen / Muhammad al-Yahyaʼi (b. 1964) -- The turning point / Hussa Yusuf -- Men and mules / Muhammad Zafzaf -- The narrow path / Latifa al-Zayyat --

SELECTIONS FROM NOVELS. Granada / Radwa Ashour -- A woman of five seasons / Layla al-Atrash -- The stars over Jericho / Liana Badr -- The crane / Halim Barakat -- People of passion / Huda Barakat -- The people's bus / Najwa Barakat -- Sages of darkness / Saleem Barakat -- Game of forgetfulness / Muhammad Barrada -- A time for errors / Mohamed Choukri [Muhammad Shukri] -- An apartment called freedom / Ghazi A. Algosaibi -- The secret life of Saʻeed, the ill-fated pessoptimist / Emile Habiby -- Power crazy / BenSalim Himmish -- City of winds / Moussa Wuld Ibno -- The committee / Sunʼallah Ibrahim -- Search for Walid Masʻud / Jabra Ibrahim Jabra -- All that's left to you / Ghassan Kanafani -- Rama and the dragon / Edward al-Kharrat -- City gates / Ilias Khouri -- The thief and the dogs / Naguib Mahfouz -- Fragments of memory / Hanna Mina -- Trees and the murder of Marzouq / ʻAbd al-Rahman Munif -- Prairies of fever / Ibrahim Nasrallah -- The epidemic / Hani al-Rahib -- Alive in the dead sea / Muʼnis al-Razzaz -- The hallway / Yasin Rifaʻiyya -- Nightmares of Beirut / Ghada Samman -- Abu Musa's neighbors / Ahmad al-Tawfiqu -- Al-Amin and Al-Maʼmun / Jurji Zaydan.