Makit Cairo..a novel by the Egyptian writer Tariq Imam, which joined the Booker series of novels, after it reached the long list in the Booker International Prize for Arabic Fiction, and its events take place in the year 2045.
In the novel “Maquette Cairo”, the writer Tarek Imam created a future for Cairo, starting from the moment when “Gallery Shogul Cairo”, the independent artistic institution for the arts of the fringe, announced a grant to build a miniature maquette for the city a quarter of a century ago, “Cairo 2020”, which became Now "the former capital of Egypt".
Based on this event, Tariq Imam's novel chronicles Cairo with four times: 2045, 2020, 2011, and an unspecified time in a distant future. And every time, a figure working in independent art rises: “Origa”, who is fond of building miniatures for the city and has been stigmatized since his childhood for the murder of his father, “Nod”, the prosecuted documentary filmmaker, released from prison for two years on charges of “outraging public morals” because of her previous movie, “Billiards”, a graffiti painter in At the time of the January revolution, he is always on the chase for polluting the city's walls, and "Manga" is a comic artist who has two memories of the city.
The different times in the novel meet and intersect in honor of one place, the Gallery. "Maquette Cairo" presents the relationship of the city with the individual, and in particular: the artist, the marginalized, the search for his identity and the pursuer of all: the authority and the people alike.
Tarek Imam is an Egyptian novelist, born in 1977. He works as a journalist, as he holds the position of deputy editor-in-chief of the Cairo Radio and Television magazine. He started writing early, having published his first book of fiction, New Birds Unspoiled by the Air, in 1995.
The writer Tariq Imam has published eleven books, among novels and short story collections, most notably “The Calmness of the Killers” 2007, “The Second Life of Constantine Cavafy” 2012, “My Father’s Tomb” 2013, “The City of Infinite Walls” 2018 and “The Taste of Sleep” 2019.
Tariq Emam participated in the "Symposium" workshop organized by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for Talented Young Writers in 2010. Some of his works have been translated into more than one language, and he won many Egyptian, Arab and international awards, including the State Encouragement Award in Egypt, the Sawiris Prize twice, the Central Prize of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Egyptian Culture twice, the Kuwaiti Suad Al-Sabah Award, and the Spanish Word Museum Award.
Tue, Mar. 8, 2022
