The Wink of the Mona Lisa and Other Stories from the Gulf

Mohammad Al Murr is one of the most recognized short story writers from the United Arab Emirates. This collection gathers stories set in and around the Gulf, drawing on everyday life in a region often portrayed from the outside through the lens of oil wealth and rapid development. Al Murr instead turns his attention to ordinary people and the small events that shape their days.

The stories move between humor and sadness, finding drama in routine situations. Characters deal with family expectations, social change, daily work, and the quiet tensions that build beneath polite surfaces. Al Murr writes with an observational style that treats his characters with warmth but without sentimentality, allowing their choices and contradictions to speak for themselves.

The title story references the famous ambiguity of Leonardo da Vinci's portrait, suggesting that what appears on the surface may hide something unexpected underneath. That idea runs through many of the stories here, where outward calm or convention can mask deeper currents of feeling. The collection offers a window into Gulf society through closely observed fictional lives rather than broad generalizations.