“In
the turbulent months after the uprisings, when the promises of
democracy and greater social freedom remained elusive, some novelists
channeled their frustrations and fears into grim apocalyptic tales. In
Mohammed Rabie’s gritty novel “Otared,” which will be published in
English this year by the American University in Cairo, a former Egyptian
police officer joins a fight against a mysterious occupying power that
rules the country in 2025.Mr.
Rabie said he wrote the novel in response to the “successive defeats”
that advocates of democracy faced after the 2011 demonstrations that
ended President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. While there are parallels
to present-day Egyptian society, setting the story in the near future
allowed him to write more freely, without drawing explicit connections
to Egypt’s current ruler, he said in an email interview translated by
his Arabic publisher.“

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