In 2019, the long-running Penguin Classics series released its first novel translated from Arabic: Tawfiq al-Hakim’s "Return of the Spirit", conveyed into English by William Hutchins. Al-Hakim wrote his popular novel in Paris in 1927 and published it in Cairo six years later, in 1933. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
In this new bilingual edition, translated by Humphrey Davies, al-Jawbari, one of the thirteenth century's leading experts in skullduggery reveals all there is to know about the wiles of false prophets, quacks, prestidigitators, cat burglars, money changers, false alchemists, and – worst of all – women. By Marcia Lynx Qualey