The Hashish Waiter

A Modern Arabic Novel from Egypt
By Khairy Shalaby

Tucked away in a rundown quarter, just out of sight of fashionable downtown Cairo, a group of intellectuals gathers regularly to smoke hashish in Hakeem’s den. The den is the centre of their lives, both a refuge and a stimulus, and at the centre of the den is the remarkable man who keeps their hashish bowls topped up—Saleh Bedlam.

While his former life is a mystery to his loyal clientele of writers, painters, film directors, and even window dressers, each sees himself reflected in Saleh; but without his humour, humility, insight, or his occasional hooch-fueled passions. And when the nation has to face its own demons during the peace initiative of the 1970s, it is Saleh Bedlam who speaks for them all.

This is a comic novel with a broken heart. Saleh’s voice, warm and rough, calls out long after we have recovered from the novel’s painful conclusion.

Khairy Shalaby, born in Kafr al-Shaykh in Egypt’s Nile Delta in 1938, has written seventy books, including novels, short stories, historical tales, and critical studies. The Lodging House was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2003.

Andy Smart and Nadia Fouda-Smart lived in Cairo for many years, where they established their own publishing house before moving to London. Together they translated Ibrahim Farghali’s The Smiles of the Saints (AUC Press, 2007).