Saara El-Arifi

Saara El-Arifi is a British author of fantasy and historical fiction, born in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and raised there before her family relocated to Sheffield, England.

She is best known for The Final Strife (2022), the opening novel of the Ending Fire trilogy inspired by West African and Arabian mythology, and for Faebound (2024), the first book of a romantasy trilogy that became a number-one Sunday Times bestseller.

After a decade working in marketing and communications, she completed a master's degree in African studies focused on Cleopatra's legacy, research that shaped her historical novel Cleopatra (2026). She lives in London.