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Kutubna Cultural Center

Three contemporary Emirati Novels: The Red Island, Rose’s Diaries, Circle of Spices

Three contemporary Emirati Novels: The Red Island, Rose’s Diaries, Circle of Spices

Price:  209 AED

A journey through memory, identity, and the unseen threads of the Gulf

Step into a world where history, myth, and personal longing intertwine. This carefully curated trio of contemporary Emirati literature brings together three powerful voices, each exploring identity, heritage, and the quiet tensions between past and present.

What’s inside: 
The Red Island: 
Publisher: Adil Alzarooni
Year of publication: 2024
ISBN: 9789948727392

In the forgotten ruins of Al Jazirah Al Hamra, a young Emirati man must confront his deepest fears and the magic that binds his fate. As he seeks to rescue a friend and reunite with his lost love, whispers of jinns and dark magic challenge his very identity. Will he find the strength to face his demons, or will he be consumed by the darkness lurking within?

Dr. Adil Alzarooni is an Emirati leader of entrepreneurial teams, committed to lifelong learning.
Rose’s diaries:
Publisher: Elf Publishing
Publication Year: 2025
ISBN: 9789948765745

Rūza is a devoted reader and scholar, with a gift for writing. But after leaving school, she’s forbidden from joining her classmates to study Arabic literature in Damascus. Instead, she must return to her father’s house in the Shindagha district of Dubai, and await her family’s decisions on her future.
It’s the mid-1960s – a time of independence movements and the rise of Arab nationalism, before the founding of the United Arab Emirates. Rūza watches and listens in silence, pouring out her anger in her secret diaries. She tosses the notebooks into the waters of Dubai’s Creek, since it is shameful for a woman to write so creatively, but she longs for the freedom to express herself…
Reem Al Kamali is an award-winning a scholar and novelist from the UAE. Her previous books include The Dalma Statue, winner of the Sharjah Award for Creative Writing, and The Sultanate of Hormuz, winner of the Al Owais Prize for Creativity. Rose’s Diaries was the first Emirati novel to be shortisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Circle of spices:
Publisher: Elf Publishing
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN: 9789948669098

A windstorm of fire, scent, and vengeance engulfs three different generations in the Arabian Peninsula.

In the ninth century AD, Abbasid poet Ibn al-Mo’taz hides in his palace from the flames of revenge eating at his soul. In the early 1920s, Shamma is born to a family of Dubai spice traders with a nose unlike any of her relatives, altering the shape of their destiny. A hundred years later, on the same coast, Sherihan grows up right by a cemetery wall, digging in constant search for death and its meaning. Her supernatural sense of smell lets her perceive feelings beyond anyone else’s reach, but when a peculiar boy tries to help her, she’s unable to detect his scent.

Can she find the answer to her burning questions? And how do scents and family secrets link her fate with those who went before?

Bundle Price
Individual total: 214 AED
Bundle offer: 209 AED (Save 5 AED)

Why this bundle?

Perfect for readers who:

* Love history woven into fiction
* Are drawn to Arab voices and regional storytelling
* Appreciate mystical narratives
* Want to explore Emirati identity across time
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