Abstract
<jats:p>The collection of seven short stories <jats:italic>Qamīṣ al-ṣūf </jats:italic>(<jats:italic>The Woollen Shirt</jats:italic>) by the Lebanese writer Tawfīq Yūsuf ʿAwwād (1911-1989), published in 1938, testifies to the modernization of Arabic literature immediately after the period of Nahḍah. Writing about the period after the First World War, as Lebanon went through a time of severe crisis, ʿAwwād offers his reader seven stories embodying various contemporary contexts and from different points of view: the Lebanese village, city and rural society, the difficult role of women in work and family, and finally the tragedies of the poorest families. This volume is the first full translation of a collection of Awwād's short stories into a Western language.</jats:p>