![]() ![]() The taboo-busting novel tells of Cairo's residents going about their lives and encountering corruption, police brutality, sexism, homophobia and religious extremism – all seething under the surface of then president Hosni Mubarak's sclerotic regime. The once grand, now decaying apartment block in central Cairo houses a rich cast of characters, whose stories Al Aswany weaves together to portray contemporary Egyptian life. ![]() Sex and the city loom large in the lives of the Yacoubian building's inhabitants. He survived an assassination attempt by Islamists in 1994, and died in 2006. Mahfouz, the Arab world's most celebrated novelist, won the Nobel prize in 1988. As Egypt struggles to end colonial rule, the al-Jawad children struggle to break free from their father's tyrannical control. Their trials and tribulations mirror those of their changing country. ![]() Mahfouz paints an intimate portrait of the al-Jawads with humour and great attention to detail. But his own behaviour is far from irreproachable as he indulges his desires for fine wine and voluptuous women. He runs his family strictly according to Qur'anic principles and demands unquestioning obedience. Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, a prosperous merchant, rules over his wife, three sons and two daughters with an iron hand. ![]()
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