Saleem Haddad Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Saleem Haddad is an accomplished published author.

He was born in Kuwait City. His mother was Iraqi-German and his father was Palestinian-Lebanese. His first novel came out in 2016. Guapa was critically acclaimed and was praised in publications such as The New Yorker and The Guardian. For this debut, Haddad was given a Stonewall Honour and awarded the 2017 Polari First Book Prize.

Saleem has written not only novels but essays, short stories, and for film and television. He has written short stories for the Palestinian sci-fi anthology Palestine+100. His directorial debut was Marco, which premiered in 2019. It was nominated for the Iris Prize in the category of Best British Short Film.

Saleem’s writing has been supported by Yaddo and the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. He would follow up his debut novel with Floodlines, a 2026 novel.

The author today lives in Lisbon, although he maintains roots in Beirut, Amman, and London.

Guapa is a 2016 novel by Saleem Haddad. If you are someone who belongs to the queer community or have an interest in books that tell these stories, check out this debut and see what you think.

This novel follows along with the story of Rasa, a young gay man who is coming of age in the Middle East. This story takes place over the course of twenty-four hours and follows along with Rasa. He is gay and living in an Arab country and is trying the best that he can to make his own life while he is surrounded by political and social upheaval.

Rasa spends many of his days translating for Western journalists. He also looks forward to the nights where he is able to get Taymour (his lover) into his room by sneaking him in. Rasa’s grandmother is the person who raised them and one night she finds them in bed together. The next day Rasa searches for his best friend Maj, a drag queen who is the star of the local underground bar Guapa and a passionate activist. It turns out that they have been arrested by the police.

He is worried and doesn’t want to go home and look his grandmother in the face. He’s also dealing with the potential loss of some very important people in his life. Rasa makes his way through the slums and the prisons of the city and goes through different occasions like the lavish weddings of the elite as well as the bars where everyone drinks to a revolution that has long been lost.

Every encounter that he has makes him move a little closer and gets him to look at his own identity. He revisits his childhood and takes a look at the secrets that manage to haunt his family. Rasa takes on the collapse of political hope and his close personal relationships as he must find out why he is alienated and do his best to try and come out into a society that might never be able to take him as he is. Read this intriguing book from Saleem Haddad to follow along with Rasa and see what happens in the end.

Floodlines is a 2026 book by Saleem Haddad. Check out the second novel that The New Yorker says is ‘Erudite and engaging’. This is a book that is set in between London and Baghdad and is the story of memory, exile, art, and the legacies of war.

It is the summer of 2014. Three Iraqi-British sisters who have been estranged for a long time find that they are now in each other’s orbit once more thanks to the discovery of some of the paintings that belonged to their late father that they thought had been lost.

The sisters include Zainab, who is elusive yet beautiful. There is also Mediha, who is practical if not embittered. Then there is Ishtar, who is queer but headstrong. Each of them are able to put a claim to the legacy of their father, and they each want to have his artistic inheritance in their possession as the siblings as they deal with competitiveness, betrayal, and a homeland that no longer seems familiar to them.

The sisters are each fighting to do what they think is right to manage the past, whether that means preserving it or erasing or re-purposing it. Meanwhile, Zainab’s estranged son Nizar is a war correspondent who is contending with trauma and heartbreak and comes back to the family.

With memories coming up that have been buried also comes along a reckoning. The family has to take a look at the different personal and political betrayals that ended up separating them. Taking place over the different decades and continents, this fascinating story jumps from different geographical locales like the Tigris River or contemporary London as it tells the story of a modern family drama.

This is the type of novel that is different from the rest and delves into just what it means to belong to something, as well as to endure and to create. Read Floodlines by Saleem Haddad to follow along from start to finish!