Spotlight on International Fiction: Egypt

In light of recent history-changing events in Egypt in the past couple of weeks, I thought it would be appropriate to focus this month's "Spotlight" on the North African country. There are many great award winning Egyptian authors translated into English as well as some great fiction that takes place in Egypt.

Here are some works of modern Egypt you may want to check out:

Friendly Fire: stories by Alaa Al Aswany

Alaa Al Aswany has won resounding critical acclaim for his deft and moving portrayals of the lives of contemporary Egyptians who constantly examine their relationship with Egypt's history, religion, class, and gender distinctions. In Friendly Fire he once again demonstrates an extraordinary empathy for lost and searching souls as he focuses on the exquisite emotions of everyday life.

Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz
Egyptian Nobel laureate Mahfouz follows the fortunes of a Cairo university graduate eager to make his way in a venal imperialist society. In 1930s Cairo, Mahgub agrees to marry the mistress of a high government official in return for a job, discovering that his wife-to-be is Ihsan--his best friend's beautiful former girlfriend, a poor student whose life has been ruined by her seductiveness--and the newlyweds become partners in a precarious plot to make their way in Cairo's high society and outwit their ill fortune.

Mahfouz is the only Arab writer yet to receive the Nobel Prize in literature.

Chicago: a Modern Arabic Novel by Alaa Al Aswany
Post-September 11 Chicago becomes the site of a cultural collision of Egyptian and American lives, including a Ph.D. candidate whose traditional upbringing is challenged by her American experiences, and an Egyptian émigrés whose western values are countered by questions about his daughter's honor. Egyptian politics and President Mubarak's repressive society affects the lives of all expatriates, as evidenced by one of the students who is actually an Egyptian security agent. Beautifully rendered, Chicago is a powerfully engrossing novel of culture and individuality from one of the most original voices in contemporary world literature.

The View from the Garden City by Carolyn Baugh

A young American student living in the Garden City district of Cairo has come to study Arabic and learns far more from the Egyptian women, young and old, she meets within the swirl and tumult of Garden City. Living, loving, and flourishing amid the fierce inflexibility of tradition, these women reveal a fascinating world of arranged marriages, secret romances, and the often turbulent bonds between four generations of Arab mothers and daughters. A deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, in the tradition of "The Joy Luck Club."

Nadia's Song by Soheir Khashoggi

Alexandria, Egypt. Born a humble servant girl on a cotton plantation owned by a wealthy British family, Karima Ismail never imagined how far her dreams would take her-nor the heartache and passion she would experience. Although her doomed love for her employer's handsome son ends in tragedy, their brief romance leaves her with a beautiful daughter, Nadia, who is the joy of her life.