The Yacoubian Building

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the yacoubian building

Author : ʻAlāʼ Aswānī
Publisher : American Univ in Cairo Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9774248627

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the yacoubian building by ʻAlāʼ Aswānī Pdf

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

Author : Alaa Al Aswany,ʻAlāʼ Aswānī
Publisher : HarperCollins UK
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Cairo (Egypt)
ISBN : 9780007243617

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The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany,ʻAlāʼ Aswānī Pdf

An intense and powerful tale set in Cairo about how one boy's bitter disillusionment with society led to great tragedy.

The Automobile Club of Egypt

Author : Alaa Al Aswany
Publisher : Random House India
Page : 486 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2015-08-22
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9788184007312

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The Automobile Club of Egypt by Alaa Al Aswany Pdf

A rollicking, exuberant and powerfully moving story of a family swept up by social unrest in post–World War II Cairo Abd el-Aziz Gaafar, formerly a well-respected landowner now in the grip of penury, moves his family to Cairo and takes on menial work at the Automobile Club—a place of refuge and luxury for its European members, but one where Egyptians may appear only as servants. Alku, the lifelong Nubian servant of Egypt’s corrupt king, runs the show in all but name. The servants, a squabbling, humorous, and deeply human group, live in a perpetual state of fear: beaten for their mistakes, their wages dependent on Alku’s whims. When Abd el-Aziz’s pride gets the better of him and he stands up for himself, his death—as much from shame as from his injuries after Alku has him beaten—leaves his widow further impoverished and two of his sons obliged to work in the Club. As the family is drawn into the turbulent politics of Egypt—public and private—both servants and masters are subsumed by the country’s social upheaval. Soon, the Egyptians of the Automobile Club face a stark choice: to live safely but without dignity as servants, or to fight for their rights and risk everything.

The Republic of False Truths

Author : Alaa Al Aswany,ʻAlāʼ Aswānī
Publisher : Knopf
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780307957221

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The Republic of False Truths by Alaa Al Aswany,ʻAlāʼ Aswānī Pdf

"This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Title page verso.

Friendly Fire

Author : Alaa Al Aswany
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2009-08-27
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780061959455

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Friendly Fire by Alaa Al Aswany Pdf

Friendly Fire, the first collection of short stories from Alaa Al Aswany, acclaimed author of Chicago and The Yacoubian Building, deftly explores the lives of contemporary Egyptians. Here are stories of generational conflict, corruption, repression, infidelity, and the dangerous clashing of western and Arab ideals, all beautifully rendered by Al Aswany, a true modern master and one of Egypt’s “most exciting literary exports” (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

Ru

Author : Kim Thuy
Publisher : Profile Books
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2012-05-24
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781847658029

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Ru by Kim Thuy Pdf

Ru: In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow - of tears, blood, money. Kim Thúy's Ru is literature at its most crystalline: the flow of a life on the tides of unrest and on to more peaceful waters. In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec. There, the young girl feels the embrace of a new community, and revels in the chance to be part of the American Dream. As an adult, the waters become rough again: now a mother of two, she must learn to shape her love around the younger boy's autism. Moving seamlessly from past to present, from history to memory and back again, Ru is a book that celebrates life in all its wonder: its moments of beauty and sensuality, brutality and sorrow, comfort and comedy.

Chicago

Author : Alaa Al Aswany
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2008-09-23
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780061981883

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Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany Pdf

The author of the highly acclaimed The Yacoubian Building returns with a story of love, sex, friendship, hatred, and ambition set in Chicago, with a cast of American and Arab characters achingly human in their desires and needs. Egyptian and American lives collide on a college campus in post-9/11 Chicago, and crises of identity abound in this extraordinary and eagerly anticipated new novel from Alaa Al Aswany. Among the players are a sixties-style anti-establishment professor whose relationship with a younger African-American woman becomes a moving target for intolerance; a veiled PhD candidate whose belief in the principles of her traditional upbringing is shaken by her exposure to American society; an émigré whose fervent desire to embrace his American identity is tested when he is faced with the issue of his daughter's "honor"; an Egyptian informant who spouts religious doctrines while hankering after money and power; and a dissident student poet who comes to America to finance his literary aspirations but whose experience in Chicago turns out to be more than he bargained for. Populated by a cast of intriguing, true-to-life characters, Chicago offers an illuminating portrait of America—a complex, often contradictory land in which triumph and failure, opportunity and oppression, licentiousness and tender love, small dramas and big dreams, coexist. Beautifully rendered, Chicago is a powerfully engrossing novel of culture and individuality from one of the most original voices in contemporary world literature.

On the State of Egypt

Author : Alaa Al Aswany
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2011-03-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9780307946980

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On the State of Egypt by Alaa Al Aswany Pdf

“Alaa Al Aswany is among the best writers in the Middle East today, a suitable heir to the mantle worn by Naguib Mahfouz, his great predecessor.” –Jay Parini, The Guardian (UK) From one of Egypt’s most acclaimed novelists, here is a vivid chronicle of Egyptian society, with penetrating analysis of all the most urgent issues—economic stagnation, police brutality, poverty, the harassment of women and of the Christian minority, to name a few—that led to the stunning overthrow of the Mubarak government. Al-Aswany addresses himself to all the questions being asked within Egypt and beyond: who will be the next president, and how will he be chosen in a land where heretofore only simpletons, opportunists and stooges involved themselves with elections? What role will the Muslim Brotherhood play? How can democratic reforms be effected among a people used to such contradictions as the religiously observant policeman who commits torture? In a candid and controversial assessment of both the potential and limitations that will determine his country’s future, Al-Aswany reveals why the revolt that surprised the world was destined to happen. “[The] star of a new generation of Egyptian novelists.” –The Independent (UK)

LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media

Author : Christopher Pullen
Publisher : Springer
Page : 514 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2012-02-29
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780230373310

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LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media by Christopher Pullen Pdf

Offering a critical introduction into LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) transnational identity in the media, this book examines performances and representations within documentary and fiction oriented texts. An interdisciplinary approach is put forward, revealing new potentials for non western queer identity.

The Dictatorship Syndrome

Author : Alaa Al Aswany
Publisher : Haus Publishing
Page : 153 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2019-12-29
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781912208609

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The Dictatorship Syndrome by Alaa Al Aswany Pdf

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 Yacoubian Building

Author : Alaa Al Aswany
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2009-03-17
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780061758829

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The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany Pdf

August Book Sense Pick A fading aristocrat and self-proclaimed ‘scientist of women.’ A purring, voluptuous siren. A young shop-girl enduring the clammy touch of her boss and hating herself for accepting the modest banknotes he tucks into her pocket afterward. An earnest, devout young doorman, feeling the irresistible pull toward fundamentalism. A cynical, secretly gay newspaper editor, helplessly in love with a peasant security guard. A roof-squatting tailor, scheming to own property. A corrupt and corpulent politician, twisting the Koran to justify taking a mistress. All live in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor slowly decaying in the smog and hubbub of downtown Cairo, Egypt. In the course of this unforgettable novel, these disparate lives converge, careening inexorably toward an explosive conclusion. Tragicomic, passionate, shockingly frank in its sexuality, and brimming with an extraordinary, embracing human compassion, The Yacoubian Building is a literary achievement of the first order.

The Book of Charlatans

Author : Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Jawbarī
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2020-11-10
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9781479897636

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The Book of Charlatans by Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Jawbarī Pdf

Uncovering the professional secrets of con artists and swindlers in the medieval Middle East The Book of Charlatans is a comprehensive guide to trickery and scams as practiced in the thirteenth century in the cities of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Egypt. The author, al-Jawbarī, was well versed in the practices he describes and may well have been a reformed charlatan himself. Divided into thirty chapters, his book reveals the secrets of everyone from “Those Who Claim to be Prophets” to “Those Who Claim to Have Leprosy” and “Those Who Dye Horses.” The material is informed in part by the author’s own experience with alchemy, astrology, and geomancy, and in part by his extensive research. The work is unique in its systematic, detailed, and inclusive approach to a subject that is by nature arcane and that has relevance not only for social history but also for the history of science. Covering everything from invisible writing to doctoring gemstones and quack medicine, The Book of Charlatans opens a fascinating window into a subculture of beggars’ guilds and professional con artists in the medieval Arab world. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Two Blankets, Three Sheets

Author : Rodaan Al Galidi
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 164286045X

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Two Blankets, Three Sheets by Rodaan Al Galidi Pdf

Based on the author's true story, this is the account of Iraqi refugee Samir, who spends nine years in an asylum center in the Netherlands. "Two Blankets, Three Sheets does for the beleaguered political asylum seeker stuck in legal limbo what Joseph Heller's Catch-22 did for the hapless soldier trapped in a military at war...Translated from the Dutch into nimble and conversational English by Jonathan Reeder...it is a tale for and of our time."--Rayyan Al-Shawaf, Los Angeles Review of Books Amsterdam Airport, 1998. Samir Karim steps off a plane from Vietnam, flushes his fake passport down the toilet, and requests asylum. Fleeing Iraq to avoid conscription into Saddam Hussein's army, he has spent seven years anonymously wandering through Asia. Now, safely in the heart of Europe, he is sent to an asylum center and assigned a bed in a shared dorm--where he will spend the next nine years. As he navigates his way around the absurdities of Dutch bureaucracy, Samir tries his best to get along with his 500 new housemates. Told with compassion and a unique sense of humor, this is an inspiring tale of survival, a close-up view of the hidden world of refugees and human smugglers, and a sobering reflection of our times.

Cairo Modern

Author : Naguib Mahfouz
Publisher : Anchor
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2011-04-27
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780307780850

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Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz Pdf

In Naguib Mahfouz's suspenseful novel a bitter and ambitious nihilist, a beautiful and impoverished student, and a corrupt official engage in a doomed ménage à trois. Cairo of the 1930s is a place of vast social and economic inequities. It is also a time of change, when the universities have just opened to women and heady new philosophies imported from Europe are stirring up debates among the young. Mahgub is a fiercely proud student who is determined to keep both his poverty and his lack of principles secret from his idealistic friends. When he finds that there are no jobs for those without connections, out of desperation he agrees to participate in an elaborate deception. But what begins as a mere strategy for survival soon becomes much more for both Mahgub and his partner in crime, an equally desperate young woman named Ihsan. As they make their way through Cairo's lavish high society their precarious charade begins to unravel and the terrible price of Mahgub's Faustian bargain becomes clear. Translated by William M. Hutchins

The Tunnel

Author : William H. Gass
Publisher : Commonwealth Secretariat
Page : 676 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1564782131

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The Tunnel by William H. Gass Pdf

"Gass has produced a book that burrows inside us then wails like a beast, a book that mainlines a century's terror direct to the brain."--Voice Literary Supplement