I Read spotlights Emirati talent with this month’s selection - Rose’s Diaries by Reem Al Kamali. It is a historical novel told in small diary slivers, where the protagonist Ruza imagines the reason why the madman in her neighborhood lost his mind.

Set in mid-1960s Shindagha, Dubai, it captures a young woman's struggle for self-expression amid rigid societal traditions and a changing era marked by early oil extraction, urban growth, Arab nationalism, and the path toward the founding of the UAE in 1971. It made literary history in 2022 by being the first Emirati book to be shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.

Led by Lana Shamma, this is not a passive read. Get the book, read it and get together with members to talk about it.