Alaa Al Aswany

This controversial bestselling novel in the Arab world reveals the political corruption, sexual repression, religious extremism, and modern hopes of Egypt today. All manner of flawed and fragile humanity reside in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor now slowly decaying in the smog and bustle of downtown Cairo: a fading aristocrat and self-proclaimed "scientist of women"; a sultry, voluptuous siren; a devout young student, feeling the irresistible pull toward fundamentalism; a newspaper editor helplessly in love with a policeman; a corrupt and corpulent politician, twisting the Koran to justify his desires. These disparate lives careen toward an explosive conclusion in Alaa Al Aswany's remarkable international bestseller. Teeming with frank sexuality and heartfelt compassion, this book is an important window on to the experience of loss and love in the Arab world.

A Novel

The Yacoubian Building

نادي السيارات

The Republic of False Truths

لماذا لا يثور المصريون؟

Sex, money, and politics are the driving forces of society in this new novel from bestselling author Alaa Al Aswany.

Chicago

شيكاجو

الذي اقترب ورأى

حادث مؤسف لضابط أمن الدولة

Yakupyan Apartmanı

roman

Jeg løb mod Nilen

حوار بين شاب ثوري ومواطن محبط

أبو شامة

‫جمهوريّة كأن‬

ʻAlāʼ Aswānī

Provides an analysis of the issues present in Egyptian society, including economic stagnation, police brutality, and poverty that led to the overthrow of the Mubarak government, and reveals why the revolt was destined to happen.

A Novelist's Provocative Reflections

On the State of Egypt

Humphrey Davies

'Friendly Fire' is a novella and collection of short stories from Alaa Al Aswany, author of 'The Yacoubian Building'. As in that novel, Al Aswany dissects modern Egyptian society and reveals with skill and detachment the hypocrisy, violence and abuse of power characteristic of a world in moral crisis.

Friendly Fire

William Maynard Hutchins

Tawfiq al-Hakim

Russell Harris

Return of the Spirit

Yacoubians hus

As the Egyptian revolution unfolded throughout 2011 and the ensuing years, no one was better positioned to comment on it—and try to push it in productive directions—than best-selling novelist and political commentator Alaa Al-Aswany. For years a leading critic of the Mubarak regime, Al-Aswany used his weekly newspaper column for Al-Masry Al-Youm to propound the revolution’s ideals and to confront the increasingly troubled politics of its aftermath. This book presents, for the first time in English, all of Al-Aswany’s columns from the period, a comprehensive account of the turmoil of the post-revolutionary years, and a portrait of a country and a people in flux. Each column is presented along with a context-setting introduction, as well as notes and a glossary, all designed to give non-Egyptian readers the background they need to understand the events and figures that Al-Aswany chronicles. The result is a definitive portrait of Egypt today—how it got here, and where it might be headed.

Egypt's Years of Revolution

Democracy is the Answer

The study of dictatorship in the West has acquired an almost exotic dimension. But authoritarian regimes remain a painful reality for billions of people worldwide who still live under them, their freedoms violated and their rights abused. They are subject to arbitrary arrest, torture, corruption, ignorance, and injustice. What is the nature of dictatorship? How does it take hold? In what conditions and circumstances is it permitted to thrive? And how do dictators retain power, even when reviled and mocked by those they govern? In this deeply considered and at times provocative short work, Alaa Al Aswany tells us that, as with any disease, to understand the syndrome of dictatorship we must first consider the circumstances of its emergence, along with the symptoms and complications it causes in both the people and the dictator.

The Dictatorship Syndrome

El escritor egipcio de más éxito regresa con una formidable novela ambientada en El Cairo antes de la caída de la monarquía y la descolonización. A finales de los años cuarenta del siglo pasado, los pachás y los miembros de la monarquía coquetean con los diplomáticos y la aristocracia europea bajo las aspas de los ventiladores del Automóvil Club de Egipto. La extravagancia y la magnificencia de sus miembros inunda los lujosos salones y, mientras el despótico rey de Egipto y Sudán honra con su presencia la mesa de póquer, la plantilla de sirvientas y empleados del club vive atemorizada bajo la autoridad inflexible del ayuda de cámara del monarca. Entre los trabajadores se encuentra Abdelassís Hamam, un burgués arruinado del Alto Egipto que llegó a El Cairo con la esperanza de asegurar la educación de sus hijos. Al igual que sus compañeros, ha soportado hasta ahora el despotismo y la injusticia del orden establecido sin ser consciente de que una minoría ha empezado a plantar la semilla de la insurgencia dentro y fuera de las paredes del club. Serán los hijos de Abselassís quienes deberán luchar por su futuro y tomar partido en un país donde la opresión británica tiene los días contados. La crítica ha dicho... «En El Automóvil Club de Egipto el intelectual más icónico de la revolución egipcia aborda, precisamente, una rebelión.» El País «Narrador talentoso, el autor nos muestra una galería de personajes fascinantes y complejos.» Paris Match «Extraordinario, profuso, democrático.» Arte

El Automóvil Club de Egipto

Alaa Al Aswany

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