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Saturday, 30 January 2016

The Automobile Club of Egypt - Alaa Al Aswany

By the author of the Yacoubian Building, but in a very different style.  There is something akin to Mahfouz in this substantial novel - maybe the host of characters, maybe the small street that all the book grows out from, maybe the glimpse into different socia classes.  A very good read.  An interesting, critical chronicle of the lives of the characters, and through them, a social history, a social critique, a critique of colonialism and empire.  Also a history of the period just before Nasser and the Egyptian revolution.
An excellent writer.  Worth rereading.


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