Your Egypt

[Winky]

:) A friend just recommanded these books to me , have you read them and which books in this genre are your favourite ?
Apparently this is almost better then reading a guide book;

In the Eye of the Sun
Ahdaf Soueif
If you are at all interested in women's lives in the contemporary Middle East - or even if you're not - you should read this book. It will tell you more about Egyptian society, about the effects of the Arab-Israeli conflict, about the difficulties facing women, who, like the protaginist Asya, find themselves thorn between tradition and modernity, than any number of non-fiction words ever will

The other one is;

The map of love also by Ahdaf Soueif

It is a massive family saga, a tale of love across culture and conflict a richly researched rendering of historical cross-currents, a story of Empire, of Egypt, and of love across the century.

[Rimo]

Dunno Winky, I read "The Sandpiper" also Ahdaf S. Collection of short stories, personaly I think a short story is the marking of a good writer , a saga is that of a good "storyteller"......Anyway something about the book really bugged me, had to stop a couple of times, one of them almost hurled it against the wall but then I read the book TWICE :oops: let me know if you like Eye of the sun, i was tempted a couple of times but backed off.....I hate having unread books.....who was it who said" it beckons everytime you pass by it and you promise yourself one day you're gonna read it?"

[moll]

Winky, I liked 'the map of love', haven't read the other one though :cry:

I also liked 'A Woman of Cairo' by Noel Barber, if it's books set in egypt that you're asking about.........it's also one of those kind of family saga things, it's set in the 50s around the time of Farouk's abdication.

[Winky]

:) Rimo and Moll thanks for the replies , yes I am looking for books with a romantically political setting in Egypt, I will order " In the eye of the sun" and " A woman of Cairo " from Amazon .

Last summer while we were on the boat I picked up a book people leave in the shower blocs for other boating people , which actually was the reason I decided that I had to see at least a bit of this country Egypt .
Unfortunately I have forgotten the title and writer, but it was about a little girl who was brought by her mum from the interior it might have been Karnak, to Alexandria where she got a cleaning job with a Jewish family , the oldest son gradually falls madly and tragically in love with her and it is mutual, when the Israel /Egyptian war starts he and family are forced to leave the country but apart from that his family is very much against the marriage because of the class difference, so just before he leaves he rents a house boat in Cairo and they spend a week there, unbeknown to him she falls pregnant and bears a son etc in the end they yearn for each other the rest of their lives, marrying other people, but when they finally meet up they realise that they have become strangers....

Anyway if anybody recognises this book please let me know the title, I would like to own it .
It left a great impact and and it opened a door ( my Egyptian friends wanted me to come and visit ) which I had looked at, but did not think I was going to open .

Before the INTERNET, books were my passion, my parents had a huge library both avid readers, I can still remember my first "adult book" , it was a fat heavy hard cover and I was only 10 did not understand it totally, but enough to give me an appetite for more, it was called " SOMETHING OF VALUE" by Robert Ruark and went on to read "UHURU", and reread these books over the years , it is about the end of colonialism in Kenya and very much a men's book with war ,sex, blood, and it tells you how it is still the same story in Africa.

Tell me what is the one book you have read and re read over the years ??

Bantu proverb, "If you do away with the traditions of the past, then you must first replace them with Something of Value",

:wink:

[moll]

winky.........where are you anyway? :? I'm packing boxes here (we're moving house) and I just came across another novel I'd forgotten about, it's setting is Cairo too

It's called 'Virgins of Paradise' by Barbara Wood, it's so long since I've read it I can't actually remember what it's about :oops:

But this is what it says: spanning four decades and three continents, as vivid and sensuous as Egypt itself :shock: , this is an extraordinary depiction of a family and a nation striving for the future and fighting the secrets of the past

:roll:

[Winky]

:lol: Moll just send it to me then :lol: It sounds exciting !!
Well I have been racing around like the proverbal blue a.... fly trying to get things sorted for next week.

I am leaving on Monday for Paris , coming back on Saturday ,meeting up with two friends one Bulgarian lady, who studies in Paris and one Egyptian(married to a French man, they do not know each other but I think I will introduce them to each other , because both are having a hard time ).

I am also selling a small house Moll but it has been rented out so no packing but had to go to Marbella to give power of attorney etc to lawyer,since the hand over is nexxt week, everything takes ages here :roll:

:wink: