John McCarthy Publishing

About us

The Founder and Managing Director of the company, John McCarthy, is a longtime student of the Arabic language. His firm's team includes Arab translators, editors, designers and marketers. The firm collaborates with the highest quality book printers and binders in Switzerland and around the globe.

SWISS MADE - Arabic edition - was a collaboration of the John McCarthy Publishing team consisting of :

Besma Al Jouini (translator from English to Arabic), Chahine Nemr (editor, designer and production manager), Carole Abi Saad Haddad (communications), Neidhart & Schoen Print AG, and Bubu AG (binders).

In July 2019, McCarthy published the first volume of his Arabic short stories entitled "يوميات حنا -- في طريقه الى سن الرشد في بلاد الأرز " ("Hanna's Diaries -- Coming of Age in the Land of the Cedars") and the second volume in June 2020.

Our story

Welcome to the dream of a retired businessman in Switzerland: A private book publishing venture specialized in Arabic translations of international bestsellers and original works in Arabic from non-Arab authors.

John McCarthy is an admirer of the Arabic language and culture. He saw his dream become reality by having the privilege of creating and launching the Arabic edition of "SWISS MADE - the untold story behind Switzerland's success" by James Breiding.

Following its enormous success, McCarthy published the first volume of his own short stories in Arabic "يوميات حنا -- في طريقه الى سن الرشد في بلاد الأرز " ( "Hanna's Diaries -- Coming of Age in the Land of the Cedars") in July 2019 and the second volume in June 2020.

The founder

The founder and managing director of the company, John McCarthy, is a longtime student of Arabic whose management consulting career was focused on the Middle East.

McCarthy grew up in New York and Paris reading in English and French and treasuring the leather bound books in the family's library. In 1964, he attended summer school at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and began learning Arabic. During his time at Princeton University, he concentrated on Modern Standard Arabic and continued at the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies in Lebanon in the late '60s, thereafter residing in Beirut through 1975.

In 2015 McCarthy took up the study of Arabic once more, this time at a private language school in Geneva, and began writing his first short stories in Arabic about a Lebanese-American teenage boy called Hanna - a coming of age story set in Lebanon. The series of over thirty episodes is called "ﻳﻮﻣﻴﺎﺕ ﺣﻨﺎ"and has become a hit among online Arabic speaking subscribers.

As demand for the Hanna stories to be published grew, McCarthy was inspired to start his own book publishing company in 2017. His first client, friend James Breiding, author of the international bestseller "SWISS MADE - the untold story behind Switzerland's success", offered him the rights to publish an Arabic edition. The book - entirely translated, edited and produced in Switzerland with the title "SWISS MADE - "ﺍﻟﻘﺼﺔً ﻏﻴﺮ ﺍﻟﻤﺮﻭﻳﺔ ﻋﻦ ﺳﺮ ﻧﺠﺎﺡ ﺳﻮﻳﺴﺮﺍ" was published in October 2017 and soon after, was launched in Geneva and Beirut.

Now retired from his business career, McCarthy - known to his Arab friends as "Abu Hanna" - has caught the startup fever and is forging ahead with excitement and enthusiasm.

Check Home Magazine interview with the founder

Submissions

SWISS MADE - Arabic edition was launched in early 2018. The first volume in Arabic of "Hanna's Diaries -- Coming of Age in the Land of the Cedars" appeared in July 2019 and the second volume in June 2020. A third volume is in preparation. Therefore, the company regrets it cannot accept submissions for the time being.