The Degenerate

The Degenerate (Al-Wabsh) is a powerful and unflinching literary novel that exposes the hidden mechanisms of cruelty, superstition, and moral collapse within a tightly bound community.

With stark realism and psychological depth, Jamil al-Salhūt traces how private suffering is turned into public judgment, and how fear, rumor, and false piety become tools of domination—most brutally against the vulnerable. The novel moves seamlessly between intimate human experience and incisive social critique, revealing how collective silence sustains injustice.

This English translation by Professor Jamal Assadi renders the original Arabic with exceptional fidelity and literary sensitivity, preserving its cultural texture, moral urgency, and narrative rhythm while opening the work to an international readership.

More than a translation, The Degenerate is a vital work of world literature in translation—an unsettling, deeply human exploration of power, fear, and moral decay