As Egypt celebrates the first anniversary of the Tahrir Square demonstrations, we look to the literature coming out of the Arab world. Ahdaf Soueif explains what it is like to live in Tahrir Square, while the Guardian's Ian Black – just back from in Syria – finds the books that offer the most nuanced picture of the Arab spring.

Samir El-Youssef, co-founder of the new online literary magazine The Arab-Israeli Book Review, joins the distinguished translator Peter Clark to discuss the most exciting new writers in Arabic, and the kinds of books they are writing.

And the American graphic novelist Craig Thompson comes to the studio to tell us about the inspiration for his Middle-Eastern epic, Habibi.

Reading list
The Invisible Arab by Marwan Bishwara (Nation Books)
Cairo: My City, Our Revoluion by Ahdaf Soueif (Bloomsbury)
Karama! Journeys Through the Arab Spring by Johnny West (Heron Books)
Taxi by Khaled Al Khamissi ( Bloomsbury)
A Treaty of Love by Samir el-Youssef (Halban)
The Arab Israeli Book Review