حانة الست

حانة الست (Hanat al-Sett) by Mohamed Baraka is a fictionalized first-person narrative told in the voice of Umm Kulthum—Kawkab al-Sharq, "the Star of the East"—the legendary Egyptian singer. Blending documented fact with imaginative reconstruction, the novel gives Umm Kulthum her own voice to recount episodes rarely explored by her biographers: her fraught relationship with her father, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Baltagi, the pressures of a patriarchal society, and the bullying and persecution she endured on her path to becoming an icon of Arabic song.

The author has described the work as built from "hidden events and forgotten truths" drawn from historical sources and references. Published by Dar Aqlam Arabiya, it is Baraka's best-known novel.