As a child, Nadia was left her with her grandparents in Egypt, while her mother sought work in the Gulf. Decades later, she looks back on her fragmented childhood from an uncertain present: it is 2011 and the streets have erupted in an unexpected revolution. Her activist father, the sole anchor in her life, encourages […]
Cairo at the very end of Ottoman rule. Behind the doors of the Automobile Club of Egypt, Egyptian staff attend to the every need of Cairo’s European elite – the way they always have done, it seems. But soon the social upheaval out on the street will break its way through the club’s gilded doors, […]
Sonallah Ibrahim is one of the most important Arabic novelists of the modern era, with an unrivalled reputation for independence and integrity among contemporary Egyptian writers. Here, each of the author’s novels is discussed individually, beginning with the influential Tilka al-ra’iha [That Smell] (1966) and ending with al-Jalid [Ice] (2011), with each work discussed in […]
Built for eternity and radiating an aura of the divine, the pyramids have inspired wonder and fear for millennia. In this gem-like novel, Gamal al-Ghitani uses these enigmatic monuments to evoke the human quest for wisdom and enlightenment. Weaving strands of Sufi mysticism and medieval Islamic history into ancient Egypt’s most enduring symbols, Pyramid Texts […]
A Account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians written in Egypt during the years 1833 – 1835 REFERENCE ONLY