Discussed in this essay:

Using Life, by Ahmed Naji. Translated by Benjamin Koerber. University of Texas Press. 150 pages. $21.95.

Otared, by Mohammad Rabie. Translated by Robin Moger. Hoopoe Fiction.
352 pages. $17.95.

The Queue, by Basma Abdel Aziz. Translated by Elisabeth Jaquette. Melville House. 224 pages. $15.95.

I was in a classroom in Turkey recently, explaining the word utopia. From u and topos: “no-place,” possibly a pun on eu-topos, “good place.” See also: dystopia. That, too, is a place that doesn’t exist, but—

“Oh,” someone interrupted, “it exists.”

My students were Syrian refugees, and they were taking…