Short List Sheikh Zayed literature Award 2015
In his latest novel, we travel with Ibrahim Abdel Meguid back to the seventies which, as he views, marked a major transformational shift in modern Egyptian society. It was in this decade, Meguid argues, that the achievements of the 1952 Revolution and the former Liberal era underwent a slump as the self-called “religious” groups, pushed by the Egyptian government, came to have a front seat just to keep creeping over the years, under both Sadat and Mubarak, until they got Egypt to the current political scene.Despite such a seemingly background, the novel penetrates into night-and-day private lives of the characters in Cairo: their madness, their blooms of youth and their love stories taken from streets to oubliettes. Captivated by its beautiful fantasies and imaginations, the reader will infinitely keep reading this novel, with all its time-crossing astonishing scenes which go far further beyond what is realistic and what is humane. The novel moves through many of the famous Cairo neighbourhoods – Roxy, Hadayek El-Kobba, Deer El-Malak, Downtown and Old Cairo – and also through Giza where greeneries on both sides of Al-Haram street turned to noisy and poorly slums. From inside, and despite, all these scenes, the novel spots the light on that optimistic spirit of the main characters who have fun and seize opportunities for the joy of life. Not only do the main two male protagonists of the novel have their names; i.e., “Saber Said[1]” and “Said Saber”, full of significances, but do also their friends, “Ibrahim Omar” and “Omar Ibrahim,” while the heroines of the novel have all the name “Safaa[2]” and are described as “First Safaa”, “Second Safaa” and so on. Yet, all these heroines are, the same like other women in society, besieged either by backward values or by inhumane acts of others. Not only do laughter and joy have a vast space within the society in this novel, but does also pain. Although it was the decade of the victory of Egypt in the war 1973 against Israel, the seventies was, the decade of the great Exodus/alienation of Egyptians inside their home country. The novel goes on, that the culture of tolerance and humanness was at the last gasp. Furthermore, as this novel depicts the everyday life of that decade, it goes easy at both secret and open night lives of Cairo. Hence, it leaves the door wide open before human soul, with its limitless and timeless desires. Ibraim Abdel Maguid is one of the most famous writers in Egypt and the Arab world were most of his novels were translated into French , English and German. He is winner of the state award for Excellence in Literature and Naguib Mahfouz prize from the American university.
