Ultimate List of Native American Books To Read Now
Recently, I wrote about Indigenous books, discussing different Indigenous authors from around the globe. In that post, I focused on Indigenous communities that many people
It’s amazing how we read about different countries and cities being destroyed by war and natural calamities, etc. And then people rebuilt everything into something entirely new. This somehow shortens the history span in our collective memory.
But Egypt is different. Despite wars, calamities, and the passage of centuries, Egypt remains old in its true essence. The pyramids, temples, the Nile River, and ancient cities all stand against time.
This timelessness also seeps into Egyptian books. And modern fiction from Egypt often carries an old history and culture. So, while Egyptian fiction is about contemporary Egyptian life, plot settings and places are historical.
This is precisely what I am going to do now. Discuss fiction books about Egypt that balance history with contemporary life.
Naguib Mahfouz needs no introduction. He stands tall with Orhan Pamuk of Turkey, Italo Calvino of Italy, and Gabriel García Márquez of Colombia, among others, in 20th-century world literature. He was the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Some of his most famous works include The Cairo Trilogy and Children of Gebelawi, with scores of novels, short stories, and screenplays.
Midaq Alley is one of his best Egyptian books, set during World War II. Hamida is a beautiful and ambitious young woman who dreams of a wealthier life. She becomes engaged to Abbas, a barber who plans to join the British army to earn money.
However, Hamida is too eager for a wealthy life. While Abbas is away, a smooth-talking pimp Ibrahim Faraj approaches her with promises of a glamorous future. She leaves her poor neighborhood to work for him, only to find herself in exploitation and shame.
This novel was also adapted into a successful film, El callejón de los milagros, which became one of the best Mexican movies. The English Patient is another great novel with some steamy romance in Cairo. I covered this novel in the best historical fiction books.
Nawal El Saadawi was one of the finest Egyptian feminist writers and activists. With a background in psychiatry, she combined her medical knowledge with her writing for the social justice of women. She often challenged political authorities, leading to censorship, threats, and even imprisonment in 1981.
Woman at Point Zero is about the life of Firdaus, waiting for her execution in Cairo prison. The novel is basically a conversation between Firdaus and a female psychiatrist who interviews her before her execution. Firdaus recounts the life of abuse, from brutal marriage to prostitution.
Saadawi shows how her decision to kill a man who tried to exploit her is an act of resistance. Overall, it’s one of the great books in Egypt about family, religion, education, and the legal system that fails her.
Alaa Al Aswany is one of Egypt’s most prominent contemporary authors. Just like Nawal El Saadawi, he has a medical background. Before becoming a full-time Egyptian writer, he used to work as a dentist. His main subjects are sexuality, corruption, and religious hypocrisy in Egypt.
The Yacoubian Building follows the lives of the residents of a once-luxurious apartment block that has fallen into decay. It has personal stories of multiple characters. For example, Zaki Bey is an aging aristocrat chasing lost pleasures. Taha is a doorman’s son who dreams of joining the police.
As the building’s status declines, it becomes a symbol of the collapsing moral and social structures in Egyptian society. All the characters struggle for survival in a hypocritical world. Taha, once idealistic, is drawn into Islamic extremism. Meanwhile, others compromise in different ways to chase power, love, or money.
When published, The Yacoubian Building became one of the best Egyptian fiction works, selling millions of copies. It was adapted into a blockbuster film of the same name in 2006 and a TV series.
Waguih Ghali was an Egyptian writer from a wealthy Coptic Christian background. He, however, lived most of his life in exile across Europe, struggling with financial hardships. Beer in the Snooker Club is his only novel besides some nonfiction works.
Ram is a westernized Egyptian from a once-privileged background living in 1950s Cairo. He spends his time drinking, playing snooker, and dabbling in Marxism. His friend Font also shares his views of being educated in British ideals while living under a corrupt Egyptian regime.
As political tensions rise, Ram falls in love with Edna, a wealthy Jewish-Egyptian woman who challenges his political naivety. Together, they get entangled in low-level activism like smuggling banned books. However, their efforts are half-hearted, as Ram is disappointed by everything.
As you can tell now, this Egyptian fiction is very much semi-autobiographical. And, one can wonder only why Ghali must have left Egypt.
Albert Cossery was an Egyptian writer who wrote exclusively in French and spent most of his life in Paris, France. However, most of his fiction takes place in the streets of Cairo. He wrote only eight novels, with sharp wit and a philosophical disdain for materialism. Critics often call him “the Voltaire of the Nile”.
Proud Beggars is about three men living in a Cairo neighborhood. Gohar is a former professor now surviving as a hashish-smoking pimp. Yeghen is a cheerful hustler, and El Kordi is a bitter police officer.
When a prostitute is found dead, El Kordi becomes obsessed with the crime, believing in the moral collapse of society. But for Gohar and Yeghen, the murder is almost incidental to their greater philosophical musings and way of life.
It is one of the best books in Egypt, unlike any traditional spy-detective novel. It uses murder to talk about alienation, freedom through poverty, and the absurdity of institutional control. So, Cossery creates a world where the poor refuse to be humiliated by their condition.
If you like detective and spy stuff, don’t forget to check out the best spy movies of all time.
Youssef Ziedan is a prominent Egyptian writer who specializes in Arabic and Islamic studies and philosophy. In fact, his PhD dissertation is on the Arabic poetic works of Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, a Sufi mystic. Here, you must be tempted to know more about Arabic poetry. Now, apart from his academic work, he has also written one of the best Egyptian novels, Azazeel.
Hypa is a young Egyptian monk in the 5th century AD, travelling across Egypt and Syria during a time of intense religious conflict. Hypa struggles internally with questions of faith, desire, guilt, and identity. He often converses with “Azazeel” (the devil), who represents his inner doubts and temptations.
His encounters with historical events also give knowledge about conflicts between emerging Christian doctrines and older traditions. As Hypa records his confessions, we also see the societal transformations of the time.
If you would like to read more about spirituality, check out my favourite spiritual books.
Gamal al-Ghitani was a leading Egyptian novelist, journalist, and cultural critic. A former war correspondent, he later founded the literary journal Akhbar al-Adab. The classical Arabic texts and Sufi thought prominently feature in his writings.
Zayni Barakat is one of his best Egyptian books that takes place in Cairo during the early 16th century under Mamluk rule. It happened just before the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The story follows the rise of Zayni Barakat ibn Musa, a newly appointed muhtasib—an official responsible for public morality.
Although his job is that of a reformer, he becomes part of a ruthless state surveillance system. He has the full backing of Zakariya ibn Radi, the sinister head of intelligence. Through these figures, we see how power is exercised and abused in the name of moral authority and national stability.
As Cairo becomes a city saturated with spies and secret informants, the lines blur between justice and oppression. Al-Ghitani cleverly uses the Mamluk context to show modern Egypt under military rule. One could compare it to George Orwell’s 1984 for its exploration of state control in the Arab world.
Ahdaf Soueif is one of the best Egyptian feminist writers and political commentators. She writes about identity, colonialism, and the intersections between East and West. The Map of Love is one of her best fiction books about Egypt, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999.
The novel is about the interconnected stories of two women across a century. In the 1990s, Amal, a modern Egyptian woman, discovers the journals of Anna Winterbourne. Anna was a British widow who fell in love with an Egyptian nationalist, Sharif al-Baroudi, during the British occupation of Egypt in the early 1900s.
As Amal reads Anna’s story, she reflects on Egypt’s past and present struggles. Anna’s life in a colonized Egypt and her cross-cultural marriage mirror Amal’s search for meaning in a post-colonial Egypt.
If you want to read more novels like this that span across time, you should check the best historical fiction books.
Bahaa Taher was/is one of the best Egyptian authors of modern Arabic literature. A founding figure of Egypt’s literary scene in the 1960s, he worked as a radio journalist and later became a fiction writer. However, he spent the better part of his life in exile due to political censorship.
Mahmoud Abd El-Zahir is an Egyptian officer appointed as governor of Siwa Oasis in the 1890s, after the failed ‘Urabi revolt. The British government sends him there as a punishment and a political test. Meanwhile, he is dealing with inner guilt over his betrayal of the nationalist cause.
His Irish wife, Catherine, also travels with him, for the love of Egyptology and ancient Egypt. But the harsh desert, cultural alienation, and secrets within their marriage expose the conflicting desires. As Mahmoud faces growing hostility from the Siwans and his doubts, he must choose between colonialism, betrayal, and identity.
Radwa Ashour was/is one of the famous Egyptian feminist writers and activists. She was married to a Palestinian poet, Mourid Barghouti. Blue Lorries is one of her best Egyptian books in the historical fiction category.
Ruqayya is a young Egyptian woman with leftist political leanings during the repressive decades of the 1960s. When she is arrested for her activism, authorities put her in harsh prison conditions. In prison, surveillance and disillusionment test her idealism.
The “blue lorries” are a metaphor used to transport political prisoners, showing the normalization of state violence. This Egyptian fiction book is somehow similar to Woman at Point Zero, which I have discussed above.
Some of the other Egyptian books by Radwa Ashour include Granada, Al Tantouriah, among others.
One key point from our discussion of Egyptian books is pretty much clear that a lot of Fiction books about Egypt are political. It’s because Egypt, after its independence from the British, has been under oppressive civilian and military rules.
One cannot give enough credit to Egyptian writers, especially female writers, for writing bravely against the brutality and systematic oppression. Also, one must credit these Egyptian authors for being creative and taking refuge in old times to discuss modern-day Egypt.
Maybe the fight against injustice is also timeless when it comes to Egypt. But as long as there’s Egyptian literature, particularly Egyptian fiction, the hope flickers. Also, if you have any favorite Egyptian books by Egyptian authors, please share!
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