Playing with Bombs

A series which focuses attention on contemporary short fiction from the Arab World.

In Playing with Bombs by the Kuwaiti born Mai Al-Nakib, a fifteen year old Palestinian finally gets a girlfriend - the girl next door. Sharing notes and longing looks through a gap in the wall which divides their gardens, they begin to explore each other and discover their hopes and plans for the future.

Mai Al-Nakib holds a PhD in English Literature from Brown University in the US and teaches Post-Colonial Studies and Comparative Literature at Kuwait University. The Hidden Light of Objects was her first collection of short stories and it won the Edinburgh International Book Festival's First Book Award in 2014.

Written by Mai Al-Nakib
Read by Amir El-Masry

Abridged and Directed by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.