A Nose and Three Eyes

by Ihsan Abdel Kouddous, Hanan Al-Shaykh (Foreword), Jonathan Smolin (Translator)

Written by iconic Egyptian novelist Ihsan Abdel Kouddous, this classic of love, desire, and family breakdown smashed through taboos when first published in Arabic and continues to captivate audiences today

It is 1950s Cairo and 16-year-old Amina is engaged to a much older man. Despite all the excitement of the wedding preparations, Amina is not looking forward to her nuptials. And it is not because of the age gap or because she does not love, or even really know, her fiancé. No, it is because she is involved with another man. This other man is Dr Hashim Abdel-Latif, and while he is Amina’s first love, she is certainly not his. Also many years her senior, Hashim is well-known in polite circles for his adventures with women. A Nose and Three Eyes tells the story of Amina’s love affair with Hashim, and that of two other young Nagwa and Rahhab. A Nose and Three Eyes is a story of female desire and sexual awakening, of love and infatuation, and of exploitation and despair. It quietly critiques the strictures put upon women by conservative social norms and expectations, while a subtle undercurrent of political censure was carefully aimed at the then-Nasser regime. As such, it was both deeply controversial and wildly popular when first published in the 1960s. Still a household name, this novel, and its author have stood the test of time and remain relevant and highly readable today.

534 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 4, 2024

About the author

Ihsan Abdel Kouddous (Quddous) was born in Cairo in 1919. His mother was the Turkish-Lebanese journalist Rose al Yusuf. Kouddous studied law but gained fame as a novelist, journalist, and editor, beginning in 1944 to write film scripts, short stories, and novels. He became a distinguished journalist in the Al Akhbar newspaper, where he worked for eight years. He then worked in the Al-Ahram newspaper and became its editor-in-chief. He often criticized important personalities, which got him imprisoned three times throughout his journalism career.

Ihsan regarded women as symbols of sacrifice in the Egyptian society which was why women were the central theme of his literary works. His works influentially contributed to bring change in the conventional concepts in Egypt. Contrary to his literary works, he was a very conservative person and a strict husband and father in his own house.

He wrote more than 60 novels and collections of short stories. Of his novels, five were dramatized, nine were used as radio series scripts, ten had television miniseries adaptations, and 49 had film adaptations. His works have been translated to several foreign languages including English, French, German, Ukrainian, and Chinese.

Reviews

[Judie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ihsan AbdelKouddous…the ✨creep✨you are

[Praveen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always believe books should make a deep impact on me and A Nose and Three Eyes by Ihsan did exactly that. It is my second time reading his work after I Do Not Sleep and I could not put this fast read down. I want to write about my own feelings because the emotional truth of this story hit me so hard. The book is about one man but he is actually three completely different people to three different women. Each woman has her own view on love where one sees love as a habit while another sees it as the running force of life and the third sees it as just another feeling. The author starts by saying we see people as we want to see them and this makes perfect sense because all the main characters constantly contradict themselves. This brilliant writing makes me love and hate the exact same character at the same time. Seeing how this man changes depending on the woman he is with makes me look at my own life and my own contradictions. I realize I do the exact same thing because I wear one mask but it always changes depending on who is looking at me. I am a completely different person to my friends and totally opposite to my family. I mold myself into different people and this causes so much turmoil inside me making my feelings both sick and pleasant. This man acting as three different people and causing so much pain brings me to a quote from the Mahabharata where Krishna tells Panchali that ego is burning wood a person can use to hurt others but it also burns themselves. My ego makes me hold onto my different masks and my confusing feelings. I let these intense contradictions hurt me but I also deeply crave them and I realize I burn myself just to feel warm.

[Gizzard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three teenage girls fall in love with the same 40ish Dr. The book has a section for each girl, and it's all written by a man. And yep, pretty problematic, I'm assuming even in 60s Cairo when it was written. The girls and their mothers scream a lot. a couple seemed to like to be smacked and then enjoy some violentish sex.

This book was recommended on the Brittlepaper web sites for books written by African authors. Apparently, it's a classic that was recently translated.

[Grace 🤍 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

A very interesting political allegory that puts a harsh spotlight on women’s sexuality in this region in the 1960’s - but constantly putting the plot & characters into the perspective of the overarching political themes forced me to have some emotional distance from the characters themselves, resulting in little to no emotional impact on me. I think it’s an interesting read and it opened me up to a piece of history I hadn’t explored before, but the story itself wasn’t my favorite.

[Maria Lotfi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s the first time I feel like it is such a difficult task to write a review. I just feel so confused by this book. I’m not even sure it’s fair to rate it… I’ll need time to collect all my thoughts on it and write about it. But let this be my “review” for now.

[Dede · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

MONTHSSS OF A SLUMPPP
i love the complex characters that Ihsan writes. I loved hearing about the first two women but the third one felt a bit repetitive and boring to me. This book started off strong and fast but then sloweddddd downnn which slumped me.

[ه · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok uhh. i think the author saw himself as hashim … which is weird.

[sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

definitely a fun read and it reminded me of valley of the dolls somewhat (one of my fav books not critically but personally). i really liked the writing style and the pacing. i hated amina’s crazy ass but i loved nagwa and rihab, dr hashim is a little BITCH.

it was really weird to me how all 3 of these young girls fell in love with the same old ass man and the fact theres lots of parts where they were arranged into marriages or romantically involved with older men that shit grossed me out