Suhaila lies in a coma in a Paris hospital. The loved ones of the title are the constellation of friends, predominantly women, who flock to Suhaila's side from all over the world to envelope her in th
In this prize-winning novel, Nahid is a woman determined to go on a journey of self discovery and understanding. As we accompany her in her sometimes delirious, sometimes lucid journey, we are given r
The so-called Will of Naunakhte (1154 BCE) has become rightly famous in Egyptology. So where did she come from and what really happened to her eight surviving children, four of whom were daughters? By
This essential book explores the early years of military rule following the Free Officers' coup of 1952. Enriched by interviews with actors in and observers of the events, Nasser's Blessed Movement sh
At the center of the world-famous pyramid field of the Memphite necropolis lies a group of pyramids, temples, and tombs named after the nearby village of Abusir. Long overshadowed by the more familiar
In 1980, Syrian filmmaker Mohammad Malas traveled to Lebanon to film a documentary about the country's Palestinian refugee camps, during which time he kept a diary of his impressions. The Dream: A Dia
In 1968 Egyptian novelist and political exile Waguih Ghali committed suicide in the London flat of his editor, friend, and sometime lover, Diana Athill. Ghali left behind six notebooks of diaries that
Ibn Shalaby, like many Egyptians, is looking for a job. Yet, unlike most of his fellow citizens, he is prone to sudden dislocations in time. Armed with his trusty briefcase and his Islamic-calendar wr
Unlike The Literary Atlas of Cairo, which focuses on the literary geopolitics of the cityscape, this companion volume immerses the reader in the complex network of socioeconomic and cultural lives in
In the third part of Kamal Ruhayyim's award-winning trilogy, Galal, the son of a mixed Jewish/Muslim family returns to Egypt after ten years in Paris. What he finds is a society in flux, yet still sti
Just to the south of modern Cairo stands the historic enclave known as Old Cairo, which grew up in and around the Roman fortress of Babylon, and which today hosts a unique collection of monuments that
In 1986, when this autobiography opens, the author is a typical fourteen-year-old boy in Asyut in Upper Egypt. Attracted at first by the image of a radical Islamist group as "strong Muslims," his invo
A middle-aged imam of a small town in Southern Lebanon, diagnosed with cancer, contemplates the illness he fears and has expected for years. He inherited his father's way of life and was persuaded to
Embrace on Brooklyn Bridge is a novel about alienation in its various forms and senses: the hero who doesn't belong; his second wife, torn between professional ambition and a desperation to give her h
Set in 2010, Hail Mary unfolds over 24 hours in Baghdad. The events of the novel take place around two characters from an Iraqi Christian family, drawn together under the same roof by the chaos in the
Khaled Mamoun works at the Palace of Confessions, a mysterious state-run security agency located in middle-class Cairo, transcribing the testimonies of criminals. At one interrogation, he encounters M
Growing up in Egypt's Nile Delta, Wafaa El Saddik was fascinated by the magnificent pharaonic monuments from an early age, and as a student she dreamed of conducting excavations herself and working in
In the Greco-Roman catacombs of Alexandria, uniquely decorated tombs from the time when religious boundaries blurred and syncretistic beliefs flourished have long been known. But it was only in 1993 t
Little is known about Egypt's Gypsies, called Dom by scholars, but variously referred to by Egyptians as Ghagar, Nawar, Halebi or Hanagra, depending on their location. Moreover, most Egyptians are obl
