The Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation and Casa Árabe, with the collaboration of Literatura Random House, are organising the presentation of the book The Automobile Club of EgyptAlaa Al-Aswany, the latest work by one of Egypt's most internationally acclaimed writers. In this book, Al-Aswany uses the popular tale to tell a choral story set in the years leading up to the Egyptian revolution of 1952.
Once again, Alaa Al-Aswany, author of The Yacoubian Building: a novel about a Cairo building and the lives of its inhabitants, proves to be one of the most important literary voices in Egypt and, with this work, reaffirms his commitment to the democratisation of the country. This meeting, in which Al-Aswany will talk with the writer and journalist Alejandro Luque, is an essential event to get to know first-hand one of Egypt's and the Middle East's best-known authors.
The Automobile Club of Egypt
In the late 1940s, pashas and members of the monarchy flirt with European diplomats and aristocracy under the fan blades of the Automobile Club of Egypt. The extravagance and magnificence of its members floods the luxurious salons, and while the despotic king of Egypt and Sudan graces the poker table with his presence, the club's staff of servants and employees live in fear under the uncompromising authority of the monarch's valet.
Among the workers is Abdelassis Hamam, a ruined bourgeois from Upper Egypt who came to Cairo in the hope of securing an education for his children. Like his peers, he has so far endured the despotism and injustice of the established order, unaware that a minority has begun to plant the seeds of insurgency inside and outside the walls of the club. It will be Abdelassis' sons who will have to fight for their future and take sides in a country where British oppression's days are numbered.
Alaa Al-Aswany (Cairo, 1957) is the most internationally acclaimed Egyptian author since Naguib Mahfuz. A dentist by training, Al-Aswany is a tireless human rights activist and opponent of Hosni Mubarak's political regime. Both his scathing journalistic articles and his best-selling works of fiction are an indictment of corruption, hypocrisy and injustice in Egyptian society. His novels The Yacobián building (Maeva), Chicago (Maeva) and I wish I was Egyptian (Random House Literature) were a great commercial and critical success in both Arab countries and Europe and established him internationally.
Alejandro Luque (Cádiz, 1974). Cultural editor of El Correo de Andalucíaco-founder of the online magazine South Mediterranean and author of several books, including The Sicilian defence o Journey to Sicily with a blind guide.
Free admission until full capacity is reached. Simultaneous translation from French into Spanish will be provided, and books will be on sale and copies will be signed after the talk.
Other interesting links:
- This book is the current reading of the book club Three with books.
- The Tres Culturas library has a lot of 30 copies of this work for collective lending.
- In our library specialised you can find all the works of Alaa Al-Aswany published in English.
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