Egyptian writer Mohamed Abdel-Nabi has won the 'Prize for Arabic Literature Translated into French' for his novel 'In the Spider's Chamber.'

The novel was translated into French by Gilles Gauther and published by ACTES SUD/Sindbad publishing house.

The prize, founded in 2013, is awarded by the Institute of the Arab World in Paris and the Jean-Luc Lagardère foundation.

The novel was originally published in Arabic in Cairo in 2016 by Dar Al-Ain and was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, known as the Arabic Booker.

The novel is based on the real-life raid in 2001 by police on the Cairo cruise ship Queen Boat, which was an alleged rendezvous spot for homosexuals

The 10,000 euro prize was awarded to Lebanese novelist Jabbour El-Douaihy in 2013, Egyptian Mohamed El-Fakharany in 2014, Saudi Mohamed Hassan Elwan in 21, Iraqi Inaam Kachachi in 2017, and Iraqi Sinan Anton in 2017.

Mohamed Abdel-Nabi, born in 1977, obtained a BA in Languages and Translation from the English and Simultaneous Translation Department of Al-Azhar University and currently works as a freelance translator.

He has published five short story collections, a novella titled Imprisoned Phantoms (2000) and the novel The Return of the Sheikh (2011), which was longlisted for the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

In 2010, his short story collection, The Ghost of Anton Chekhov, won the Sawiris Literature Prize.

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