Nightfall in Cairo

by Ezzedine C. Fishere, Sharidan Russell (Editor)

Amal, a young Egyptian-American lawyer stripped of her citizenship in exchange for her release from prison, is forced to leave Egypt the next evening. At her farewell party she meets Omar and asks him to stay with her until she departs — and to tell her what has happened in the country during her years behind bars. Over thirty-six hours, Omar becomes her Scheherazade, recounting stories of mass protest and of quieter, everyday battles: broken ambitions, patriarchy, state violence, and lives reshaped by defeat. Their conversations, charged with intimacy and desire, reveal how politics enters the most private corners of life. At once personal and political, the novel portrays a generation struggling to endure — and to reinvent itself — in the aftermath of revolution.

“A modern tale from Arabian Nights. No caliph or slaves, but the essentials are there: sex, words, death - and perhaps love” Le Monde

“Bold, makes fun of the taboos.” Deutschland Funkkultur

“Every Egyptian reader can find himself in this novel” Al Jazeera

“A gripping, intimate prose that fuses political critique with bitter humor” Haaretz

“The disenchanted Egypt” Liberation

“Brutal, a triumph.” Mada Masr

207 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 25, 2017

About the author

Ezzedine C. Fishere is an Egyptian-American novelist whose work explores the intersections of politics, identity, and everyday life in the modern Middle East.

He is the author of nine novels, three nominated for the Arabic Booker (the International Prize for Arabic Fiction), with two adapted into acclaimed television dramas. A former diplomat in Cairo, Jerusalem, and Khartoum, he was a prominent voice of the Tahrir Uprising before going into voluntary exile in the United States in 2016. He now teaches Middle Eastern politics at Dartmouth College.

Reviews

[Marrin Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Shakespeare, "Nightfall in Cairo" can be read and enjoyed on many levels. It is about the average people who lived the Egyptian revolution in 2011 – an unprecedented time that has been called the critical heart of the Arab Spring. And we feel as if we have met these people, know them and understand their motivations, and aspirations as well as their defeats. But it also gives us insight into culture, both Egyptian AND American culture. We see things through the eyes of others and thus begin to see ourselves in ways we didn’t quite understand before. It touches on truths about mankind, about society and about the power of the human spirit to shape our own destiny. And it does this through the stories of individuals which are both specific and universal. "Nightfall in Cairo" is a powerful book that is a complete pleasure to read revealing, without holding back, the many aspects of love. It’s political and personal at the same time. It’s about a nation and it’s also about us.