Reddit mentions of The Adventures of Amir Hamza (Modern Library)

A great list of 6 very good books! (Especially love The Golem and the Jinni, which is amazing...)

There are also a lot of very, very good Middle Eastern 'flavored' SF/F books that are from non US/UK authors, and well worth seeking out. Or, skip the flavor, and pick up some books from Middle Eastern authors! The combination of Google and Amazon/Book Depository makes it surprisingly easy...

If you're interested, some starters:

• This site - arablit.org - is a great resource. As is Islam and Science Fiction.
  
• Handy listicle.
  
• NYT article about dystopian fiction in the middle east.
  
• Massive GR list
  
  Some non 'Arabian Nights' classic fantasy:
  
  
• Hoshruba
  
• The Adventures of Amir Hamza
  
  More recent authors and books:
  
  
• Iraq + 100
  
• Saad Hossain's Escape from Baghdad!
  
• Sami Shah's Fire Boy
  
• Youssef Ziedan's Azazeel
  
• Ahmed Khaled Towfik's Utopia
  
• Basma Abdel Aziz's The Queue
  
• Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red
  
• Amin Maalouf's Samarkand and others.
  
• Elif Shafak
  
• Plus the short stories of Usman Malik, Amal El-Mohtar and Sophia Al-Maria (amongst others)
  
  

I don't know that I have any special knowledge to offer particularly other than to rattle off the usual greats of contemporary fiction: Murakami, McEwan (I highly recommend On Chesil Beach which left me feeling ill upon completing it), Updike (the Rabbit series is another commentary along the lines of White Noise and is incredibly adept at expressing the American ethos from decade to decade), Saramago, Cormack McCarthy.

I would also strongly recommend a few books which are perhaps less likely to enter the normal discussion: Naguib Mahfouz's Children of the Alley is a beautifully executed allegorical novel which retells the history of Cairo in terms of biblical narratives. Youssef Ziedan is the former director of the manuscripts at the library in Alexandria and has a fantastic novel out called Azazel. I'm sure it will be translated into English soon as it won the international prize for Arabic fiction. Finally, I'd recommend an early 19th century retelling of quite old Persian/Urdu epic called the Dastan of Amir Hamza.

Hope you enjoy the reading. And let me know if you have any good reads for me.