50 MUST-READ BOOKS FROM EGYPT

books Tue, Nov. 19, 2019
When kids are exposed to Egyptian books in English, it’s mostly mummies and pharaohs. For adults, it’s mostly Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz.

But Egyptian literature has a tremendously rich and varied history: of cookbooks and crime novels, satire and sci fi, dystopias, and dramas. This list of 50 barely begins to poke at the surface. And it doesn’t even talk Egyptian literature for young people!

To start off in the 14th century:

1) TREASURE TROVE OF BENEFITS AND VARIETY AT THE TABLE EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY NAWAL NASRALLAH
For a long time, most of the cookbooks written in this world were put together by Arabs. This 14th century cookbook is a profoundly rich resource for Egyptian culinary heritage.

2) BRAINS CONFOUNDED BY THE ODE OF ABU SHADUF EXPOUNDED EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY HUMPHREY DAVIES
You might want to wait for the paperback of this 17th century satire about the Egyptian countryside, which will have an introduction by celebrated contemporary Egyptian author Youssef Rakha.

3) THE ESSENTIAL TAWFIQ AL-HAKIM ED. DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES
This excellent collection by pioneering 20th century translator Denys Johnson-Davies brings together many different genres the great al-Hakim (1898–1987) worked in. As I’ve written elsewhere, he was equal parts genius, humorist, misogynist, and grouch.

4) THE DAYS BY TAHA HUSSEIN, TRANSLATED BY E.H. PAXTON, HILARY WAYMENT, KENNETH CRAGG
This brilliant life-writing by “The Dean of Arabic Literature” (1889–1973) comes in three parts: An Egyptian Childhood (1929), The Stream of Days: A Student at the Azhar (1939), and A Passage to France (1973).

5) THE CALL OF THE CURLEW BY TAHA HUSSEIN, TRANSLATED BY A. B. AS-SAFI
This wonderful novel by Hussein (1889–1973) is narrated by the charming Amna, who’s from the Upper Egyptian village of Beni Warkan. She’s all at once jealous, bright, greedy, insightful, and human. It’s a novel with significant insights into class and gender in twentieth century Egypt that’s also fun to read. It was made into the popular film (translated as The Nightingale’s Prayer) and is in desperate need of a fresh translation.

BY FATMA MOUSSA MAHMOUD
This is the story of Egypt’s anti-colonial revolution, by Egypt’s only Nobel literature laureate (1911–2006). It’s told through the eyes of four very different men staying in an old-fashioned pension in Alexandria, as they circle around a young woman from the countryside who works there.

7) THE CAIRO TRILOGY BY NAGUIB MAHFOUZ, TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM MAYNARD HUTCHINS, OLIVE E. KENNY, LORNE M. KENNY, AND ANGELE BOTROS SAMAAN
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this amazing, sweeping trilogy by Mahfouz (1911–2006). It’s set during the sweeping changes of mid–twentieth century Egypt.

8) THE SEARCH: PERSONAL PAPERS BY LATIFA AL-ZAYYAT, TRANSLATED BY SOPHIE BENNETT
Al-Zayyat (1923–1996) was one of the mid-20th century’s great literary innovators; this is her personal work, where she speaks in an intimate, personal voice.

9) THE OPEN DOOR BY LATIFA AL-ZAYYAT, TRANSLATED BY MARILYN BOOTH
Al-Zayyat’s (1923–1996) best-known novel. A must-read for feminists in the 1960s, and a must-read for feminists today.

10) THE MAN WHO LOST HIS SHADOW BY FATHY GHANEM, TRANSLATED BY DESMOND STEWART
An unforgettable portrait of a young social climber told by four different narrators. By the great Fathy Ghanem (1924–1999)

11) THE ESSENTIAL YUSUF IDRIS EDITED BY DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES
I wish there were a collection of Idris’s (1927–1991) Cheapest Nights that I could point you to, but this is also an excellent collection of work by Egypt’s short story master.

12) DISTANT VIEW OF A MINARET BY ALIFA RIFAAT, TRANSLATED BY DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES
Stories by Rifaat (1930–1996) were published in newspapers but not, at least during her lifetime, gathered in a collection in Arabic. Johnson-Davies brought these stories—cited by Chinua Achebe as an influence—together in English translation.

13) WAR IN THE LAND OF EGYPT, BY YUSUF AL-QA’ID, TRANSLATED BY LORNE KENNY
Selected as one of the greatest 105 books of the twentieth century by the Arab Writers Union, this wonderful novel tells the story of Masri (which translates to “Egyptian”), a young Egyptian peasant who is sent into the Egyptian army on the eve of war in place of a rich man’s son.

14) THE GRANADA TRILOGY BY RADWA ASHOUR, TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM GRANARA
To the great shame of English, only the first book of Ashour’s award-winning Trilogy—also chosen by the Arab Writers Union as one of the “best 105 books” of the twentieth century—has been translated. A sharply observed and enjoyable historical novel set in a changing Granada.

15) SIRAAJ, BY RADWA ASHOUR, TRANSLATED BY BARBARA ROMAINE
This novella is not Ashour’s most well-known, but it’s my favorite, set in the late nineteenth century on a mythical island off the coast of Yemen.