BEIRUT: A cottage industry in books about the Arab Spring is already well under way, despite the fact that most of the revolutions in the region are still incomplete, compromised, thwarted or stuck. Those responding to the chain of events set off by Mohammad Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia a year ago have so far been rushed, suggesting that any meaningful accounting will have to wait.

That said, the past 12 months have been good for readers with a longer view of history, an interest in reviving old stories and the patience to take on big, formidable new books. With 2011 being Naguib Mahfouz’s centennial, it marked the start of renewed efforts to retranslate his classics, beginning with “Midaq Alley” and culminating soon (one hopes) with “The Cairo Trilogy.” It also saw the passing of Kamal Salibi, one of Lebanon’s most graceful and probing historians. The 10 books below cover a range of fiction and nonfiction, from ancient history to contemporary art.

Mahmoud Darwish, “In the Presence of Absence,” translated by Sinan Antoon, published by Archipelago Books

The last installment in Mahmoud Darwish’s trilogy of prose works, “In the Presence of Absence” follows the late, great Palestinian poet’s “Journey of an Ordinary Grief” and “Memory for Forgetfulness.” Divided into 20 sections, the book is less the autobiography of a man than the chronicle of a poet discovering the pleasures of language, the rhythm of stories and the sound of images. Other themes in this lightning quick but intensely visceral read include prison, exile, occupation, distance, history and myth, imagination and reality, cities, love, women, the writing life, sleep and dreams.

Elias Khoury, “As Though She Were Sleeping,” translated by Humphrey Davies, published by MacLehose Press

Published four years ago in Arabic, Elias Khoury’s “As Though She Were Sleeping” is set in Mandate Palestine, where a notably nonlinear plot unfolds over the course of three nights in December 1947. The novel dwells wholly in the dreams of its protagonist Meelya Shaheen, who, with Palestine set to explode, has come to live with her husband in Nasra (aka Nazareth), where she is about to give birth. History and politics rumble in the background as Khoury foregrounds his love of Arabic poetry and his interest in the micropolitics of a marriage.

Amin Maalouf, “Disordered World,” translated by George Miller, published by Bloomsbury

The author of fabulous historical fictions such as “Leo the African” and “Samarkand” has a substantial sideline in nonfiction narratives, too. Amin Maalouf’s latest is a collection of essays on identity politics, economic crisis and climate change. The tone of “Disordered World” is ominous, but the introduction, penned at the start of the Arab Spring, offers a few glimmers of hope.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, “Jerusalem: The Biography,” published by Alfred A. Knopf

The critical reception of this brick-sized history of one of the most politically loaded, emotionally charged cities in the world perfectly exemplifies the ways in which no one ever wins in Jerusalem. For the British press, Simon Sebag Montefiore’s effort was balanced on the whole, but too Jewish in parts. For the American press, it wasn’t Jewish enough. Montefiore didn’t do himself any favors calling the book “the biography” instead of “a biography,” but the critical quibbling misses the point. This is a magisterial tome that reads like a break-neck thriller, jostling with passions, atrocities and wrenching sorrows at every turn.

Hanan al-Shaykh, “One Thousand and One Nights,” published by Bloomsbury

One of Lebanon’s best-loved novelists, Hanan al-Shaykh is clearly on a roll. Two years ago, she published “The Locust and the Bird,” a riveting biography of her mother, which was remarkably brave in its airing of her family’s dirty laundry – hard times, illicit affairs and all. Now, Shaykh has tackled the mother of all narrative yarns and written her own take on “The Thousand and One Nights.” The 19 tales of djinns, dervishes, tricksters and fools collected here are mischievous, sexually explicit and profoundly surreal.

Lamia Ziadé, “Bye Bye Babylon: Beirut 1975–1979,” translated by Olivia Snaije, published by Jonathan Cape

The artist Lamia Ziadé brings her pop and irreverence to this book of fragments, published last year in French, this year in English, and translated in between by longtime Daily Star contributor Olivia Snaije. Ziadé’s crude drawings and short, detailed texts recall memories of wartime Beirut. As seen through the eyes of a child – bratty, scared and preciously cynical – the violence crashing over the city becomes her school, with ad hoc lessons in the nicknames for weapons, the fashion statements of militias and the dwindling vocabulary of visual pleasures to be found in, say, the signage for cinemas.

“Fifteen Ways to Leave Badiou: Artists Respond to Badiou’s Fifteen Theses on Contemporary Art,” edited by Bassam El Baroni and Mahmoud Khaled, published by the Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum

In a region long on the ingenuity of artists but short on the innovation of curators, the Alexandra Contemporary Arts Forum is not only the hottest thing happening in Egypt’s second largest city, it is also dreaming up and implementing an onslaught of projects that are cerebral and earthy, conceptual and productive. The latest is “Fifteen Ways to Leave Badiou,” an art project and an exhibition in book form. Asking 15 artists to respond to the French philosopher Alain Badiou’s 15 theses on contemporary art (“the only maxim of contemporary art is not to be imperial,” for instance), the book makes for surprisingly rich and thorny reading.

“Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753-1914,” edited by Zainab Bahrani, Zeynep Celik and Edhem Eldem, published by SALT

Accompanying an exhibition of the same name at the research center SALT in Istanbul, this 500-plus-page book looks at the history of archaeology from the founding of the British Museum in 1753 to the opening of Istanbul’s Museum of Islamic Art in 1914, when the Ottoman Empire “crossed a crucial line between being the field of Western archaeological exploration to an actor in that field.” “Scramble for the Past” is scholarly but lively, shot through with meaningful stories of particular relevance to ongoing debates about museums, history, modernity and heritage in Beirut.

“Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East,” edited by Reza Aslan, published by W. W. Norton & Company

Literary anthologies and short-story collections covering the Middle East and the Arab world are many and multiplying. This book takes an idiosyncratic approach to the region, including translations from Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Urdu. The selections, however, are peerless, from Naguib Mahfouz and Yasar Kemal to Forugh Farrokhzad. “Tablet & Pen” slides between poetry and prose with great ease, and moves purposefully through 100 years of fine writing.

Teju Cole, “Open City,” published by Random House; Don DeLillo, “The Angel Esmeralda,” published by Scribner; and Errol Morris, “Believing Is Seeing (Observations on the Mysteries of Photography),” published by the Penguin Press

None of these books is specifically set in, or addressed to, the region, but all of them illuminate it from curious angles. In strange and subtle ways, Teju Cole’s accomplished first novel may be the most thoughtful reflection yet on how the world has changed since 9/11. Having set a third of his novel “Mao II” in Beirut, Don DeLillo turns his attention to Dubai in the pitch perfect story “Hammer and Sickle,” in which two young girls dramatize financial collapse on daytime television. Errol Morris’ essays-as-detective stories include deep considerations of Abu Ghraib and press coverage of the 2006 war in Lebanon.