Egyptian Novelist Alaa El-Deeb, 77

Thursday evening, prominent critic, translator, and novelist Alaa al-Deeb, died at the Maadi Military Hospital:

According to Ahram Online, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree that al-Deeb’s hospital bills would be covered by the president’s office, “but the decree has not yet been enacted.”

Born in Cairo in 1939 to a literary family — al-Deeb’s older brother was also a novelist and critic — the author studied law. He graduated in 1960 and went on to work in journalism and to write a weekly column called “Book Juice.”

His creative career also began in the 1960s, when he published his first short-story collection in 1964 and wrote the script of the film “The Mummy.” Al Ahram called al-Deeb’s 1978 novella Lemon Flowers “one of the most remarkable novellas in the history of Arabic literature.” He is perhaps best known for his autobiography, A Stop Before the Decline.

The Mummy: