Embrace at Brooklyn Bridge
Salma is late for her own birthday party.
Having missed her train, she will not arrive at Penn station-NY before
midnight. On this journey during which the young girl wavers between a sense of
independence and a sense of utter bewilderment, Salma is torn between the calls
of religion, tradition and freedom. Her trip to NY has highlighted her sense of
lost identity. She also underwent exhilarating as well as frightening
experiences. This is the story of Salma and her family members: a grandfather
who is a renowned NY professor, a divorced father in an impossible love affair,
a meditating burnt-out uncle, and others.
An embrace by Brooklyn Bridge is not only a novel about complex cross-cultural interactions; it is above all a novel about people and their struggle for - and with - life. Simple and ordinary people who fight with themselves, and through their constrained choices they make their own tragedies and deal with them the best way they can.
Published in Cairo in June 2011, this novel is long-listed for the Arabic Booker Prize.
An embrace by Brooklyn Bridge is not only a novel about complex cross-cultural interactions; it is above all a novel about people and their struggle for - and with - life. Simple and ordinary people who fight with themselves, and through their constrained choices they make their own tragedies and deal with them the best way they can.
Published in Cairo in June 2011, this novel is long-listed for the Arabic Booker Prize.
Abo Omar El-Masry
This is the epic story of Abu-Omar El-Masry, a man caught between crushing injustice
and the futility of violent resistance. It takes us from the decaying streets of Cairo to
the slums of Paris, the deceivingly calm streets of Khartoum, to the abysmal valleys
and barren mountains of Afghanistan. Its episodes combine love and stoicism;
the brutal repression of Arab states and the grim violence of Jihad; the blank look in eyes of
dead and the frigidity of hands accustomed to killing.
No matter how successful, and gruesome, the quest of Abu-Omar is above all ephemeral; just as the ultimate goal seems within reach, he sudden realizes how hollow the whole affair was. Then victory becomes equal to defeat, and there seems to be no way out … until an unexpected ray of light shines through. Abu-Omar El-Masry is not a novel about violence, Jihad or revenge. It is about the things that really matter.
First published in Cairo in 2010.
No matter how successful, and gruesome, the quest of Abu-Omar is above all ephemeral; just as the ultimate goal seems within reach, he sudden realizes how hollow the whole affair was. Then victory becomes equal to defeat, and there seems to be no way out … until an unexpected ray of light shines through. Abu-Omar El-Masry is not a novel about violence, Jihad or revenge. It is about the things that really matter.
First published in Cairo in 2010.
Intensive Care Unit
A woman and three men, coming from different social and religious segments in society, are trapped under the rubble of the Egyptian Consulate in Khartoum, blown up by a suicide-bomber. Waiting for rescue that doesn't seem to come, each of them follows a free-reined trail of introspection and reflection on their personal lives and decisions.
The embassy's intelligence officer, a visiting famous liberal journalist, an Islamist female lawyer and activist, and a Coptic human rights advocates, all four witnesses of the general state of collapse.
By the choices they made, they all contributed to create a situation of which they are equally victims.
First published in 2008, Intensive care unit was long-listed for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2009.
The Pharaohs’ Journeys
Interweaving
the life stories of nine characters trapped in an endless traveling inside and
outside Egypt, this novel narrates their attempts to deal with their
predicament: environmental disasters, epidemics, social decay and abject
poverty, coupled by the repression of a failed state.
Pharaonic Journeys, though apparently a hymn to the loss of hope, is not a nihilistic verdict but an anatomy of the tragedy of a people who struggles to retain a measure of humanity - and even hope – in the midst of an overwhelming decay.
First published in Cairo in 1999.
Pharaonic Journeys, though apparently a hymn to the loss of hope, is not a nihilistic verdict but an anatomy of the tragedy of a people who struggles to retain a measure of humanity - and even hope – in the midst of an overwhelming decay.
First published in Cairo in 1999.
The Killing of Fakhredine
This novel narrates the quasi-mythical life of Fakhredine, who disappeared mysteriously in a Cairo slum in the early nineties. After official investigation fails to substantiate rumors that he was assassinated by security forces, the investigator decides to pursue the matter privately.
Mixing the past and present, reality with the mythical and even prophetical accounts, we are drawn into a unique world of disturbing and conflicting testimonies about the life, and earlier ‘deaths’ of Fakhredine.
First published in Cairo in 1995
Recent articles
"And the winners for now are ....", The Financial Times, November 24, 2011
“Egypt’s Fifth President”, Al-Ahram Weekly, March 3, 2011.
"Mazal Tov, Egypt!”, Foreign Policy, February 18, 2011.
“All Arabs Will Hear My Street Corner Chatter”, Financial Times, February 5, 2011.
“The Myth of Defensible Borders: How A Regional Security Initiative Can Promote Middle East Peace”, with Omar Dajani, Foreign Affairs, January 5, 2011.
“The Arab World Tipping Point”, Al-Ahram Weekly, December 31, 2010.
“Tackling the Mideast nuclear conundrum”, Foreign Policy, April 21, 2010.
“Egypt’s Fifth President”, Al-Ahram Weekly, March 3, 2011.
"Mazal Tov, Egypt!”, Foreign Policy, February 18, 2011.
“All Arabs Will Hear My Street Corner Chatter”, Financial Times, February 5, 2011.
“The Myth of Defensible Borders: How A Regional Security Initiative Can Promote Middle East Peace”, with Omar Dajani, Foreign Affairs, January 5, 2011.
“The Arab World Tipping Point”, Al-Ahram Weekly, December 31, 2010.
“Tackling the Mideast nuclear conundrum”, Foreign Policy, April 21, 2010.