Palace Walk by Naguid Mahfouz

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (The first part of the Cairo Trilogy) (1956, English translation 1990)

Read: mid-Feburary- April 2009

When I started reading some of the translated Arabic Literature here I soon realised that I wanted to try and read the famous Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz. Talking to any Egyptian they see him as a hero of Arabic literature and although this trilogy is particularly famous and well regarded he has a whole body of work (that takes up a whole shelf in the school library!). This book is a biggie (500 pages) and I read many other shorter books whilst I had it "on the go", which is why it took me so long to read. But as I got to know the characters I really enjoyed it and have already taken out Palace of Desire the second book in the Trilogy to start this weekend.



The book follows a family living in downtown Cairo at the end of World War 1 and the English occupation (the trilogy continues the story into the 1950's). I found the language of the text and their speech to be very formal and very reverend, which indicated to me that they were a learned family. Talking to a colleague though she said that they represent an Upper Middle class family. They couldn't be an Upper Class family, because they didn't have any international links or schooling (the sons go to a local school and the father own a local shop). Apparently the Upper Class at that time would have travelled abroad, or have links with other nationals. They are definitely an Upper-Middle Class family though because of the father's status with his shop.



The tale of the family of the family of five is forever encompassed by their devotion and reference to God, Allah. This is seen in their activities, routine, practices and language. I found some of the conversations to be very stilted by this language, but also their nature meant that emotion was often lacking in their choice of words.



I found that the novel does give a very detailed and particular insight into life at this time. The routine of Amina (sometimes, very formally, referred to as "The mother") waking at dawn to help the maid to prepare bread for the oven. The Coffee Hours that turn from simple drinking, to socialising, playful and touching scenes that the young boys, sisters and mother look forward to each day and lament the loss of as they age.



All of the five children (two girls and three boys) age differently in the few years that the book spans. Kamel loves being the youngest and yearns daily for this mother's affection. When his mother can no longer give him this attention it coincides with the British occupying the street on which they live, so Kamel turns to entertaining the British soldiers on his way home from school. Kamal is written as a young, cheeky boy who has an innocence to most of what is going on around him. Both girls long for marriage, but Aisha does more so than her younger sister. Her attractiveness leads her to desire something more than the confines of their house, with its wooden screened windows. Their devotion to God and the rules of the house are clear, as is their bending of them, and Ahmed Al Sayed nearly discovers that Aisha has been courting a suitor from behind the modesty screen. I found it touching the way that her marriage affected the rest of the family. Kamal in particular sorely missed his sister when she left to live with her husband, and when Yasin's new wife moves in she is no substitute.

At odds with the religious observance in conversation and in daily life in the household - such as Amina, the mother, always preparing her husbands clothes for him when he rouses - is the father's behaviour outside the family circle. It could be seen as reassuring that even the strictest, most devout of men have vices, but soon I came to feel that it was more than a vice. It becomes more a lifestyle, life choice that Ahemd makes and keeps from the rest of his family. I, personally, didn't like the idea of having, needing, something so separate from the rest of his family. Especially whilst the women in the family where not allowed to leave the house so as to avoid the evil eye and being looked upon by any men. However, Ahemd does make and pursue this choice, and I feel he gets his just deserts when he finds his son Yasin may be taking after him. It brings a sense of realism to the story, a sense of understanding that this family is very much a real family, for the right and wrong reasons.

One really touching scene is when Yasin is called to his mother's house as she is on her deathbed. Despite Yasin's misdemeanours as he has grown up into a young man, he turns into the model son again. You can feel both his regret, and that of his mothers at the news of his divorce after less than a year of marriage. I am interested to see whether this changes Yasin's attitude at all in the subsequent books.

A vivid scene is when Ahmed confront his second eldest, and most academic son, Fahmy about his rumoured involvement in the Movement. It isn't just Ahmed's standing that would make him reluctant to have a son involved in the Nationalism Movement, but anyone would naturally be weary at a time of high tensions to put themselves in a dangerous position. So I wasn't surprised when Ahmed confronted his son, but, taking after his father, Fahmy manages to wriggle his way away from the truth of the matter and almost gets away with it. The father raises the stakes when he asks Fahmy to swear on the Koran, and this in fact causes Fahmy to flee the room rather than swear on something he couldn't keep. Prior to this scene I had wondered whether the family was as devoted as their spoken language suggested, but this scene proved how seriously Fahmy and his father take their beliefs.



I may feel differently after finishing the rest of the trilogy, but for me this book was very long and didn't have a finite ending point. There were many climaxes which could have heralded the end of this Chapter in their lives. However, the ending itself may seem more significant as I read the final two books.

Birds of Amber by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid

Birds of Amber by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid,
First published in Arabic in 2000, English translation published 2005
Read: January-February 2009

Birds of Amber is Meguid's third novel and the second that I have read. In a similar style to No One Sleeps in Alexandria, Birds of Amber is set in modern day Alexandria at a time of historical significance. Instead of the Second World War, this time the setting is the Suez War of 1956. Again the railroad workers and poor neighbourhoods feature, but rather than the railroad linking the characters, the Mahmudiya Canal does. Even more so in this novel though, Meguid shows the diversity of life and characters in Alexandria; the story follows half a dozen of them over the year and their New Year's Eve.

What ties the characters in Birds of Amber is that their stories take place at the same time in and in the same location, with the stories converging on the teeming life of the projects by the Canal. But very few of the stories actually cross over, meaning there isn't a single narrative throughout the book. I feel that the common theme that links the main characters is that of a search for self-expression.

Nawal is a young woman who dreams of becoming a singer, and all that do hear her voice are in love with it. Although I wasn't familiar with the songs that she sang, the lyrics in the texts showed their beauty. In her journey to achieve her dreams of becoming a singer though, she becomes tangled in a web of a potential Communist uprising in Alexandria - the desire of another character to achieve their self-expression in a policed state and closed political system.

In one way the sweetest manifestation of this was in the character, Eid. This young boy didn't seem to ask anything of anyone, but simply wanted to look at women - any/all women. In one way this is a simple pleasure, but the sexual undertone soon becomes an overtone in his story. Maybe it is because I never used to read much fiction in the UK that the regular appearance of sexual references surprises me in more Arabic literature. This definitely surprised me in the first translated novel I read; The Jacoubian Building, and then Alaa Al Aswany's follow-up, Chicago. I do accept though that in those two novels, as well as this one, the sexual attraction between characters and their relationships was an important part of the story - so it is probably me that needs to adapt to the reality of modern literature!!

Again a strong theme that comes through with all the characters is that of the importance of family and community. The strength and bravery of Nawal's parents when she is caught up with accusations of Communism is unrelenting and the most uplifting part of the book. Similarly when the men of the project unite when their goats for sacrifice are stolen and they must try to find and return them. Even once the culprit is found, the blood of the Canal runs thicker than the water of the Nile along which their journey has been.

Although I enjoyed reading Birds of Amber, I preferred No One Sleeps in Alexandria for a few reasons. I found it difficult at times to follow the half dozen characters in the book as the narrative jumped around yet was always in the first person. I also felt that the historical significance of the Suez War was only a bit part, compared to the Second World War in his second novel, and I had been looking forward to finding out more about the Suez War from the man on the street in Alexandria. I did find the book an interesting read though, and it definitely reinforced my understanding and imagination of Alexandria as a cosmopolitan city, which constantly seems to be a melting pot for Arabic and European peoples and their ideals.

No One Sleeps in Alexandria by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid

No One Sleeps in Alexandria by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid (1996, 1999 English translation)
Read: November 2008

This was the first ranslated Modern Arabic novel that I bought and I bought it in Alexandria on our first trip there. It follows the lives of two Egyptians; one a Copt and one a Muslim, at the time of the Second World War when they must leave Alexandria to work on the railway in El Alamain.

MORE REVIEW ON THE WAY! I loved this book!

Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany

Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany
First publish in Arabic in 2007, English Translation published in 2007
Read: December 2008


Where The Jacoubian Building followed the lives of a group of Egyptians living in a building in Downtown Cairo, Chicago follows the lives of a group of Egyptians who have left Egypt to live and study in Chicago. The story is set in the present, and centres around the University in Chicago where there is a clustering of Egyptians who are academics and students over on scholarships.


The characters in Chicago are all at different stages of their life outside of Egypt. There are those who are settled in Chicago, having lived there for a number of years, whether as a student or an academic, then there is Tariq who has only been studying for a few years who is joined by Shaymaa when she moves there at the very start of the book.

They all have different feelings about their home country and some advocate a black-and-white approach to why they are studying and working at a university in America, rather than at home. I can sympathise with both points of view; the first group feel that they are studying in America to gain the best international experience and knowledge they can, so that Egypt will benefit on their return, the other group see this as an opportunity to escape and develop themselves, and do no see themselves returning to Egypt to develop their country. The motif of social mobility runs through the book especially in Danana, who leads the Union representing Egyptians in Chicago. His desire to create and maintain a political and social structure in Chicago that echos that of Egypt itself makes him stand out but also makes others follow him.

I was quite surprised by some of the things Alaa Al Aswany's characters got away with saying in this book. One of the characters openly and articulately criticises the Egyptian government, which whilst this is a work of fiction, the words really cut through the page. I think that the international popularity of The Jacoubian Building, and hence the international community and Arabic community eagerly awaiting this novel, paved the way for Alaa Al Aswany to make such statements that other authors would not be able to make. I actually found it a really interesting read; to see a range of current political opinions being expressed whilst change is taking place in and around Egypt.

As well as politics, the book explores issues of love, sex and family for these estranged Egyptians. Alaa Al Aswany was able to capture beautifully not only the feelings of first love, but also those of a lost love and a love where the fire has long since died out. The female characters are strong, and battling the internal and external pressures they feel as their multiple identities of being Egyptians, Muslims and Americans, collide. Alaa Al Aswany does not limit his story to Egyptian characters, as Carol, an African-American also tries to do what is right for her and her family.

I am increasingly seeing a pattern in Modern Arabic Literature where authors favour writing about a number of characters who lives are somehow, although not obviously at first, connected, rather than writing a single narrative. Part of me wonders if this is just "modern" way of writing that I am not used to - having not read much fiction in recent years in the UK. Having said that I found the multiple narrative easier to follow in Chicago than I have done in other novels, such as Birds of Amber.


Chicago is a really engaging book and, as an expat living in Egypt, provides a window into the experiences of those who've made the opposite journey to me. The range of story lines, from the settled, to the new, the political to the apolitical, the loved to the lost, means that something about every character will draw you in. Each story has a climax, where characters strength of beliefs are tested. I personally found Tariq and Shaymaa's story most moving, but was most engaged in that which drew the characters together throughout the novel, that of the impending visit of Egypt's President. Instead of an insight into Egyptian, or Arabic life, this shows the struggles of living in another's world.

Taxi by Khaled Al Khamissi

Taxi by Khaled Al Khamissi (2008)


Read: November-December 2008



Taxi is a really great read. It was actually my husband that spotted a poster for the English Edition in the bookshop, and it proves that you can judge a book by its cover. For us, the cover is a classic image summarizing life in Cairo; the Black and White Taxi. Inside, the book tells 53 different stories of taxi journeys where the conversationshad with the drivers give an insight into the most common job in this bustling city.



I could make up some numbers about how many Taxi's there are in Cairo compared to the number of people living here, but suffice to say there are a lot. So many, that when you stand on a street corner you will normally have at least half a dozen trying to either mow you down to pick you up as a fare, or beep you into submission with their horns. Through each individual story, Al Khamissi tells of the woes and wonders that these people come across every day. When I saw that one of my students was reading the original arabic novel I asked him whether he thought the stories were true and accurate, he replied that he thought they were, but that I should really read the book in arabic to get the true feel for the language and culture of this city of taxis.

The City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish by Peter Parsons

The City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish by Peter Parsons (2007)
Read: October-November 2008



This book was given to us by a good friend shortly before we left England for Cairo. It was a really thoughtful gift, as we are both interested in non-fiction books and wouldn't have been moving out here if we weren't interested in Egyptology!! The by-line for this book is "Greek papyri beneath the Egyptian sand reveal a long-lost world" It is the Greek connection here that will always mind me of our friend, because she lived in Greece for a number of years herself.



This was a non-fiction book, but it was also a rather academic book, which meant I had to concentrate a lot of make sure that I understood and picked up everything I was reading. The book is really a study of a huge find of papyrus near Cairo which dated from the time of Alexander the Great (332BC). The book starts by talking about the way the papyrus were found just South of Cairo and that it was calculated that they belonged to the Greek city there, Oxyrhynchos, the Glorious most Glorious City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish. Although the find was initially made in 1897, it took ten years for the many many fragments to be shipped to Oxford for study, and many more years for sense to be made of all the findings.

The book gives a good overview of the Greeks in Egypt - a time that can be easily overlooked when history books and programmes on Egypt are overwhelmed by the Pharaohs. This was still a proerous time, and the Nile Delta became a real mixing pot for Greek, Roman and Egyptian iconography and traditions (something we have seen ourselves at the amazing Catacombs in Alexandria).

I can see why it has taken so long for a study of this amaing find to be published, as these really were only fragments of writing that were found. On top of that, the find is believed to have been a rubbish dump, and therefore finding consistency in the content of fragments has been a huge undertaking, as every piece of life in Oxyrhynchos was mixed in to one huge mound.

The book then looks at different aspects of City life in turn; with the evidence for each of these being based on the papyrus writings found. The papayrus evidence makes this a very different book to your typical how-did-people-used-to-live book, becuase the evidence is so minuetly specific and there is so much of it. When Parsons examines The Market, he not only knows that there wa a bustling market, but how each vendour would price their goods, what days trading too place on, how much each vendour had to pay to hold a stall there, and of course, the good old shopping lists of the market's patrons.

The book also includes pictures of the statues and paintings found at the site ofthe old city, and some wonderful photographs of the original papyrus found. These pictures emphasise the difficulty in making sense of the wealth of information at the site, but my favourite picture also provides a lighter side to the story; a schoolchild's doodling of a picture and writing "King Midas has ass's ears"

Silent No More by Lesley Lababidi and Nadia El-Arwbi

Silent No More by Lesley Lababidi and Nadia El-Arwbi (2002)
Read: September 2008

This is a book about special needs in Egypt, written in 2002 and published by AUC. It looks at the history of disability in Egypt, legislation and the many NGOs and schools that exist for disabled people. The book contains individual perspectives and extensive interviews with key players.

Coming to Egypt with a background in disability and knowing that I would be working in the area of special educational needs I really wanted to read and have this book. It is a valuable resource for me, and would be for anyone else in the field. The main section of it takes on an almost directory format to look at the schools catering for special needs.

Although the interviews with disability activists and disabled people give a human perspective on the current climate of disability issues here in Egypt, it is dissapointing that there is not more of a political agenda in this book. It is very much looking back at where the disabled people and the disability climate has come from, rather than looking forward to what should happen for disability equality. Mrs Susanne Mubarak has written the forward and I wonder whether they authors balanced the desire for a political agenda with a desire for current political approval.

Seven Years in the Sun by Rhoda Gorden Amine

Seven Years in the Sun by Rhoda Gordan Amine (1959)
Read: September 2008

This is a memoire written by an English woman who married an Egyptian in the 1950’s. It is an interesting account of Egyptian life and culture from her perspective at the time of Nasser and the Suez crisis. We were given this book by Uncle Roy who had found this book in the place that Jim and Roy normally find books J He said he thought it looked interesting and he was right. It is a first edition hardback (but actually there never was a second edition as far as I can tell) and the dust jacket is very much frayed, torn and worn (i.e. doing the job of a good dust jacket).

Seven Years in the Sun is an autobiography covering Amine’s life as an Englishwoman who marries an Egyptian and lives in Cairo in the 1950’s. The book starts as her adventure starts; when she leaves England for Cairo in 1950 and the book closes when she “sailed out of Alexandria harbour” in 1957. In the introduction, Amine comments that she had always wanted to write a book about her life in Egypt, but that whilst living there she had neither the “leisure nor the detachment” to do so. I can sympathise with her position here in terms of the leisure time required to write, but I feel differently about her point on detachment which I will explore more later.

Amine grew up in China, because of her father’s job, but returned to England when she was 16 years old. She suggests that her many trips through the Suez Canal as she travelled between England and China on home leave gave her a desire to visit the Pyramids, and when she returned to England after her schooling, she structured her further study around making this dream a reality.

Amine lands employment working at a British/English School in Cairo, although most of the pupils are Egyptian. If this sounds familiar, it was doubling reassuring to have one of the teachers describe a student as follows “She speaks in three languages, but thinks in none!”


What I enjoyed about reading this book, was that despite it describing life and experiences in Egypt and Cairo 50 years ago, the stories she tells about the culture here still resonate. I read this book when we had only been here a few weeks and I found it so reassuring to be reading about a Westerner’s difficulty with fitting in to the culture here.

Alongside the narrative of her family life, she gradually introduces Arabic words and customs. I enjoyed this structure because you don’t find out about the culture and language in one go, but it is a gradual process – that really is never-ending! She mentions baksheesh, and that despite people being very poor here, they are still proud. Other words she introduced me too included “itfaddal” which literally means “take your pleasure” but conveys more a feeling of “tuck in” or “join us” for a meal.

Despite being an Englishwoman, Amine’s story soon turns into that of an Egyptian wife. Even the way she meets her husband-to-be is more Egyptian, than English, which may be unsurprising considering this is the culture that is all around her, but I did find it surprising as she is a very strong willed person, who doesn’t lose or shy away from, at first at least, her British identity. The almost arranged marriage and the husband-to-be’s honest desire to “marry an English woman” therefore come as a surprise. Once she marries Osman though, in 1953, she becomes fully integrated into Egyptian life and culture.

It is through her marriage though, that I think Amine achieved what she really wanted, to understand another culture and live the exotic life. And it is through this marriage that we not only meet an Egyptian man, her husband, but his family, family life and true day-to-day life in Egypt. Amine comes to know her husbands sisters, mother and brothers’ wives very well, as she becomes integrated into the role of a woman in a traditional Egyptian household. We get to see the delicate dance that families perform when a marriage is arranged, and when it fails. We also get to see her frustrations at having achieved so much in her education and life experience (having taken herself through university and lived in three different continents) yet then finding herself in a role she feels so limiting. It is not that she is fulfilling the role of wife and mother that she finds constraining, but the family and structures around her that dictate her moves.

The third part of the book looks at Islam, which was all the more interesting to me and as I was reading this during Ramadan. The phrases and beliefs she translates are now part of our everyday life “Allah Akhbah” God is Great “Iftar” the breaking of the fast “Humdu lillah” Praise God! This Chapter also explained the initially extravagant need for every apartment we had visited to have two living rooms. As we mentioned on our blog, when we arrived in Cairo we were surprised to find an additional living room at the back of the apartment – as were friends in their apartments. Amine explains that although the standing of women in cities is much more advanced than that in small towns, the women of the household would still retire to this separate, private, living room should a male guest arrive alone. She also adds that “Cairo flats are generally so planned that guests can be received without penetrating far into the home” and once reading this I always notice that the door to an apartment opens into the living room space, with the kitchen close by, and often there is an arch where a modesty curtain could be hung.

For me the experience and language that stands out the most in this book, is when Amine recalls the regularity that she is called “Ya Khawaga!” a phrase which although comes from the Turkish for Mister, is used as a form of address for any foreigner in Egypt. From her description though it seems that although this is a formal, polite address, by its vary nature it marks out the recipient as different, as a foreigner. This word seems to follow her around her life in Cairo, despite her integration into family and Egyptian life. Although she learns to not become upset at being called a Khawga, her Egyptian husband takes offence and no protestations by either of them that they are Muslim, that she lives in Egypt, speaks the language and is of one blood will reduce the frequency of the address. Although this is one of the words that regularly marks her time in Cairo, it is not one that I am yet familiar with – maybe it has gone out of fashion as a phrase, or maybe everyone is so used to Westerners in the Cairo suburb where I live that it doesn’t serve a purpose. We think we did hear it once, when exploring the streets behind a traditional market near the Metro; there were some children playing football who called out to us from the maze of streets – streets deemed so unimportant and undesirable that they are not on any map – so maybe it is still used, be we just don’t often find ourselves in places where we could be a Khawga.

The book closes as the Suez Crisis takes hold and Amine finds her position as a Khawga in Cairo and in Egypt untenable. This was the first book that I read that refers to the political situation in Egypt and I found it very interesting to see the History unfold and the impact that this had on everyday Egyptians and on Westerners in the country.

Overall I did really enjoy reading this book and found it so interesting, especially at a time when so much here felt so new, but then could feel so familiar when I recognised them in the text. The book also contains some wonderful pictures that Amine took during her time in Egypt. These really depict everyday life in Cairo and its bustling streets – some thing feel like they haven’t changed in the 50 years since they were taken. I don’t know if I agree with Amine’s statement in her Preface that she didn’t have enough detachment when she was living there to write. She may not have had enough detachment to make a true account of her time living in Cairo, but I don’t think you need to wait to be detached before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), in fact, I think that there is a huge value in writing in the moment – as you will never have that moment again. With hindsight though, you will always reflect differently on a situation, but I don’t think this takes away any of the value in capturing the moment as you live it.

Musicophilia, Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sachs

Musicophilia, Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sachs (2008)
Read: January-February 2009

This was one of our early request books that came shipped out to us by visiting parents. I'd read one of the Oliver Sachs book before....or maybe two... and found them interesting - a bit science-y but also quite accessible.
This was a lot harder than I expected. I thought it would be again science-y but about music and it was, but the science weighed in too heavy for me and parts were quite difficult and heavy to get through. It did give a few interesting examples that I liked, such as seeing colours as music, but the case studies were really quite long.

I got through it with a lot of effort. Scott started it, but couldn't get far. I only really persevered because I knew we'd asked for it specifically to be bought out!