"First published in Arabic in 2018 as Awlad haratina: sirat al-riwaya al-muharrama"--Title page verso.

Mohamed Shoair is an Egyptian critic and journalist, and managing editor of the literary magazine Akhbar al-adab. Born in 1974, he studied English literature at South Valley University in Qena, Egypt. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the Dubai Prize for Journalism. The Story of the Banned Book won the Sawiris Prize for Literary Criticism and was longlisted for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. It is his first book to be available in English.
Humphrey Davies (1947-2021) translated some thirty book-length works from Arabic, including The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany, and was a two-time winner of the Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.