The latest addition to my website is Rhea Galanaki‘s Ο βίος του Ισμαήλ Φερίκ Πασά (The Life of Ismail Ferik Pasha. Ismail was a historical character. He and his brother were born in Crete but captured by the Ottomans during a Cretan revolt and sent into slavery. The brother escapedwhile Ismail was spotted,trained at a … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Radwa Ashour‘s ثلاثية غرناطة (Granada Trilogy). This tells the story of an extended Arab family who, at the beginning of the book are living in Granada from the fall of Granada in 1492 to the expulsion of the Arabs just over a century later. At the beginning there … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sonallah Ibrahim‘s 1970 (The Last Days).Tthe book tells of the last few months of the life of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. While the focus is on that period when Egypt is involved in the War of Attrition with Israel and the Jordanian Civil War is taking place, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Fausta Cialente‘s Ballata Levantina (The Levantines). This novel tells the story of well-to-do European expatriates (primarily but certainly not exclusively Italian) living in Egypt (primarily Alexandria) from the 1920s to the end of World War II. Our heroine is Daniela. Her grandmother, Francesca, had been a successful dancer … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sonallah Ibrahim‘s العمامة والقبعة (The Turban and the Hat). The novel takes place during the French occupation of Egypt from 1798 to 1801. The historical figure Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti wrote the only surviving account of the occupation from the Egyptian point of view. In this novel, the unnamed … Read more
\ The latest addition to my website is Ghazi Algosaibi‘s شقة الحرية (An Apartment Called Freedom). This novel takes place between 1956 and 1961, primarily in Cairo and follows a group of young men, primarily Bahraini, who have gone to Cairo to study. As well as their studies, they pursue other activities. Girls are their … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mohamed Kheir‘s عباصلأا تلافإة (Slipping). This book is seemingly a book of separate stories but, gradually, they nearly all get some connection to one of the two main themes. The first is the story of Seif, a magazine journalist who has to show Bahr, an Egypian exile round … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sonallah Ibrahim‘s االلجن وردة (Warda). This tells the story of Rushdy, a left-wing Egyptian, who has spent time in prison for his political activities. When younger he had met and fallen for Shahla. She and her brother went off to Oman to fight in the Dhofar Rebellion, and … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ashraf El-Ashmawi‘s اال>سيدة الزمالك، (The Lady of Zamalek). This novel covers Egypt from the beginning of World War II to almost the end of the twentieth century, focussing on Abbas Mahalawi, a young Egyptian, who, initially, looks as though he is going be a young man made good … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Taha Hussein‘s دعاء الكروان (The Call of the Curlew). Taha Hussein is considered as one of the greatest Egyptian novelists but is also noted for his liberal views and for the fact that he earned academic and political distinction as well, despite being blind from the age of … Read more