He has translated numerous works of both historic and chiefly contemporary fiction by Egyptian, Iraqi and Lebanese authors.
In a 1978 profile of the Theroux family, James Atlas wrote that then 21-year-old Peter “had completed five (unpublished) novels by the time he started college.
[7] Theroux's first published translated literary work was the first volume of Cities of Salt, the contemporary epic novel cycle by the Saudi writer Abdelrahman Munif.
His translated works include contemporary fiction by Arabic writers from Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Alex Raksin described Sandstorms as a "stunningly candid portrait of culture and politics in the Middle East".