As Doha Said

A Modern Arabic Novel from Egypt
by Bahaa Taher

A tale of post-revolutionary disillusionment. A sophisticated and richly textured novel exploring themes such as apathy and despair, courage and self-sacrifice, ambition and temptation, disillusionment and political faith, and, above all, commitment and betrayal. Egyptian Bahaa Taher was the first writer to be awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the 'Arabic Booker')

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Price: £6.40

The Zafarani Files


by Gamal al-Ghitani

An unknown observer is watching the residents of a small, closely-knit neighborhood in Cairo's old city, making notes. The college graduate, the street vendors, the political prisoner, the cafe owner, the taxi driver, the beautiful green-eyed young wife with the troll of a husband. All are subjects of surveillance. The watcherís reports flow seamlessly into a narrative about Zafarani Alley, a village tucked into a corner of the city, where intrigue is the main entertainment, and everyone has a secret.

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Price: £7.19

Murder in the Tower of Happiness


by M. M. Tawfik

Inside the Tower of Happiness, Cairo’s super-rich live out their sordid lives and lavish lifestyles. The naked, strangled body of Ahlam, a beautiful young actress, is discovered in one of the lifts, and as the police investigation gets under way we meet the tower’s strange cast of characters. Living amongst them is Antar, a boy who roams the tower, enters apartments and overhears conversations. Unsettled by his presence, the residents’ decadent lives begin to unravel.

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Price: £7.19

Nile Sparrows


by Ibrahim Aslan

Set in the Nile-side neighbourhood of Warraq, Aslan’s novel chronicles the daily rhythm of the life of rural migrants to Cairo and their complex webs of familial and neighborly relations over half a century. New paperback edition available from June 2009.

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Price: £11.99

Cities Without Palms


by Tarek Eltayeb

The debut novel from a rising Sudanese writer, 'Cities Without Palms' tells the tale of young man who leaves his native village in Sudan and sets out alone to seek work in the city, in order to save his mother and two sisters from famine and disease. Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid - Joint Runner-Up of the 2010 Saif Ghobash-Banipal Prize for translation from the Arabic.

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Price: £6.39