In this thriller-cum-jigsaw puzzle, two storylines play out across continents and true historical events as American novelist Christine McMillan and student Rachid Bennacer aim to solve The Secrets of Folder 42, while chess champion Zouhair Belkacem, shunted off to medical school in Moscow, returns to Morocco in time for a spectacular crunch day.

Prizes

The original Arabic edition of the book, entitled Al-Malaf 42 was shortlisted – details here: https://arabicfiction.org/en/node/1717

Abdelmajid Sebbata is the author of three novels in Arabic: Khalfa jidar al-‘Ashuq (Behind the Wall of Passion, 2015), Saa‘at al-Sifr 00:00 (Zero Hour 00:00, 2017) which won the 2018 Moroccan Book Award, and this novel The Secrets of Folder 42 (Al-Malaf 42 [File 42], 2020, shortlisted for the 2021 International Prize for Arabic Fiction). Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1989, Sebbata has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tangiers. He has written articles and translations on literary, cultural and historical subjects that have been published in print and online in Morocco and other Arab countries, and has translated into Arabic Walter Tevis’s The Queen’s Gambit and two novels by the French thriller writer Michel Bussi. Raphael Cohen is a professional translator and lexicographer who studied Arabic and Hebrew at Oxford University and the University of Chicago. He has translated a growing number of novels by contemporary Arab authors including Flowers in Flames by Amir Tag Elsir (2022), Guard of the Dead by George Yarak (2019), Butterfly Wings: an Egyptian Novel (2014) by Mohamed Salmawy, The Art of Forgetting (2011) and The Bridges of Constantine (2014) by Ahlem Mosteghanemi, Status Emo by Eslam Mosbah (2013) and So You May See by Mona Prince (2011). He is the translator of The Madness of Despair by Ghayla F T Al Said, and translated and introduced Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (both Banipal Books, 2021). He was a contributing editor of Banipal magazine of modern Arab literature that closed in 2022 where his translations included works by Arab poets Ahmed Rashid Thani, Samer Abu Hawwash, Hala Mohammad, Ahmed Al-Mulla and Marwan Makhoul. Forthcoming in 2024 with Banipal Books is his translation of The Secrets of Folder 42 by Abdelmajid Sebbata.