EGYPT

“We are like a woman with a difficult pregnancy. We have to rebuild the social classes in Egypt, and we must change the way things were.” —Naguib Mahfouz

NONFICTION

Cairo: The City Victorious, Max Rodenbeck, 1999 — The fascinating history of the city from ancient times, through the Middle Ages to modern days by a Cairo-based correspondent for the Economist.

Echoes of an Autobiography, Naguib Mahfouz, 1994 — A slim volume of meditations and memories by the Nobel-prize winning Egyptian novelist with a foreward by Nadine Gordimer.

A Portrait of Egypt: A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam, Mary Anne Weaver, 1999 — A chilling look at Egypt by the astute New Yorker writer who predicts that Islamic fundamentalists will defeat the secular state with a profound impact on the Middle East.

Flaubert in Egypt, Gustave Flaubert, 1996 — The French author visited Egypt in the 19 century and letters and journal entries show how much the place inspired him when he visited in 1849. A year later he wrote Madame Bovary.

Out of Egypt, A Memoir, Andre Aciman, 2006 — A wonderful, multi-generational memoir, beautifully written, of a Jewish family in Cairo.

FICTION

Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively, 1987 — An absolutely beautifully written novel, which won the Booker Prize, about a love affair that unfolded in Cairo during the Second World War.

The Cairo Trilogy, Naguib Mahfouz, 1957 — Born in Cairo in 1911, the first and only Arab Nobel Prize winner (who was stabbed in the neck in an unsuccessful assassination attempt by Islamic extremists) authored this splendid trilogy chronicling three generations of a Muslim family during the British occupation of Egypt in the early 20th century.

Cairo Modern, Naguib Mahfouz, 1945 — Mahfouz brilliant novel first published in the 1940s appeared in English for the first time in 2008.

The Map of Love, Ahdaf Soueif, 2000 – This story of a British widow’s Egyptian love affair was Soueif’s first novel and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.