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 neighbourly relations over half a century. In an elliptical narrative, Aslan links a series of vignettes that mimic the workings of memory, moving backward and forward in time. He portrays the dramas that constitute the lives of ordinary Egyptians with the humour and heartbreaking pathos that have become trademarks of his style.

Ibrahim Aslan was born in Tanta in 1937. He is the author of 'The Heron' (AUC Press, 2005) and is culture editor in the Cairo bureau of the London-based daily newspaper 'al-Hayat'.