As Doha Said

A Modern Arabic Novel from Egypt
By Bahaa Taher

In Egypt a new era has dawned, but the dawn has taken an ominous turn.  President Gamel Abdel Nasser has just proclaimed the first in a series of nationalization decrees, the stock exchange has shut down, and its parking attendant, Sayyid, is staring at penury. Across the street, the office of the Ministry's Supervisory Board of Administrative Organization is engulfed in an eerie silence, and the narrator, one of the two remaining fulltime occupants of that nearly defunct government office, has fallen desperately in love with the other, Doha - forceful, erudite, and a complete enigma, with a spiritual bond to the Egyptian goddess Aset.

In this sophisticated, richly textured novel the author explores such themes as apathy and despair, courage and self-sacrifice, ambition and temptation, disillusionment and political faith, and, above all, commitment and betrayal.

Click here to read The Complete Review's review of As Doha Said.

Bahaa Taher, born in Luxor 1964, received the State Award of Merit in Literature, Egypt's highest honour for writing in 1998 and the Giuseppe Acerbi prize for his novel Aunt Safiyya and the Monestery in 2000. He was the first writer to be awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the 'Arabic Booker'), in 2008, for his novel Sunset Oasis.