The Egyptian government-owned Al Ahram has launched the beta version of its new English online portal. The site includes a replacement for the old Al Ahram Weekly book-review section, which expired in the spring of 2006.
Soueif manages, when you read her English-language dialogue, to let you know clearly what the characters are saying in Arabic.
I de-coupled this from my review of Abdelmeguid’s Saint Theresa, although the two novellas have been published together by AUC Press, because I find Sleeping with Strangers a much harder book to review.
Bahaa Abdelmegid first published the slim, 96-page Saint Theresa in 2001. When it finally appeared in English in 2010—apparently it had been on AUC Press’s “to translate” list for a […]
In Al Masry Al Youm, Amany Aly Shawky reviews Mekkawi Said’s latest: مقتنيات وسط البلد , or Downtown Collectibles.
Summer reading challenge participant Winston’s Dad (at least that’s the name of his blog, although his first name seems to be Stu) has posted a review of Mohamed Choukri’s For […]
Because I resist this idea of “summer reading,” I thought I’d choose a summer reading challenge book that is quiet, thoughtful, and cannot easily be taken to the beach (where one reads with an eye to make sure the youngest doesn’t drown) or on a plane (where one reads with an eye toward the person sneezing beside her).
Palestinian-French-American poet Nathalie Handal‘s latest collection, Love and Strange Horses, won an honorable mention at the recent San Francisco Book Festival. You can read a review of Love and Strange […]
Hassan Blasim’s debut short story collection, The Madman of Freedom Square, directs the reader’s gaze toward the violence of recent Iraqi experience: neighbors turning in neighbors, street cleaners collecting body […]
