Editorial Reviews
Review
"Readers in English have an unprecedented opportunity to see Arabic fiction at its best in "The Yacoubian Building" by Alaa Al Aswany (American University in Cairo Press, in translation). In Arabic, it's the best-selling work of fiction in years. Aswany tells the story of a building, a street, but more importantly, a country and the currents that have shaped it over a generation. This is a soulful book, one that journeys seamlessly across Egypt's borders of class, faith and identity. When it ends, we know more about Egypt, but perhaps also, we better understand the currents that shape our own lives."
Anthony Shadid, author of "Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War." (Milwaukee Journal)
Book Description
The Yacoubian Building holds all that Egypt was and has become over the 75 years since its namesake was built on one of downtown Cairo's main boulevards. From the pious son of the building's doorkeeper and the raucous, impoverished squatters on its roof, via the tattered aristocrat and the gay intellectual in its apartments, to the ruthless businessman whose stores occupy its ground floor, each sharply etched character embodies a facet of modern Egypt -- where political corruption, ill-gotten wealth, and religious hypocrisy are natural allies, where the arrogance and defensiveness of the powerful find expression in the exploitation of the weak, where youthful idealism can turn quickly to extremism, and where an older, less violent vision of society may yet prevail.
Alaa Al Aswany's novel caused an unprecedented stir when it was first published in 2002 and has remained the world's best selling novel in the Arabic language since.
The Yacoubian Building
The Yacoubian Building,Alaa Al Aswany,AUC Press,9774248627,Fiction,Fiction - General,Literary,Fiction / Literary
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