This week, our editors-at-large report on the rise of audiobooks, a festival spotlighting indigenous Indian literature, and an award-winning Palestinian memoir. From visions of Paris from a prison cell to a whistling naming tradition, read on to find out more!

Carol Khoury, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Palestine

Palestinian author Nasser Abu Srour, recently released from Israeli imprisonment, has won the prestigious 2025 Prix de la littérature arabe for his powerful prison memoir, Je suis ma liberté, translated into the French by Stéphanie Dujols. The award ceremony was held at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris on November 18, coinciding with PEN International’s Day of the Imprisoned Writer. His memoir, written over 33 years inside Israeli prisons and smuggled out piece by piece, chronicles his experiences behind bars and his resilience in the face of oppression. It originally appeared in Arabic in 2022 titled Hikaayet Jidaar (the story of a wall) and translated into the English as The Tale of a Wall by Luke Leafgren. READ MORE…