Tayeb Salih (1929-2009) was born in northern Sudan and educated at the University of Khartoum. After a brief period working as a teacher, he moved to London to work with the BBC Arabic Service. Salih later worked as director general of information in Qatar in the Arabian Gulf, and then with UNESCO in Paris and the Arab Gulf States. Along with The Wedding of Zein, his books in English include Season of Migration to the North (also published as an NYRB Classic) and Bandarshah.

Denys Johnson-Davies (1922-2017) translated more than thirty-five books by modern Arab authors, including Naguib Mahfouz and Mahmoud Darwish. He has also produced more than fifty books for children, mostly taken from traditional Arabic sources. In 2007 he was awarded the Sheikh Zayed Prize for his services to Arabic literature.

Illustrated by Ibrahim Salahi.

"This book. . . has timelessness and universality. . . humanity and abundant humor in all hues. . . insights and worldliness and awareness." --London Tribune

"The Wedding of Zein presents a view of rural life so resilient it seems capable of withstanding challenge from any quarter...Salih weaves the story of Zein's life forward and backward, touching nearly everyone..." -The Christian Science Monitor

"What I find particularly attractive about Mr. Salih's way of writing is his attitude to the village people he describes. All of them are seen in a humourous way; the reader is invited to laugh at them, or at least to smile. And yet this humour is fundamentally kind; even at their most ridiculous, all the characters retain an essential dignity." -Kingsley Amis

"These three stories are interesting, formally, because they show what happens when a considerable sophistication and resourcefulness of technique is applied to traditional storytelling material." -The Guardian (London)

"A group of three sympathetic, well-told tales of Sudanese village life." -The Listener

"It is certainly time that [Salih] be better known in America." --The Christian Science Monitor