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The Automobile Club of Egypt
Alaa Al Aswany
€ 21.99
€ 14.77
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for The Automobile Club of Egypt
Paperback. From the bestselling author of The Yacoubian Building comes a novel bursting at the seams with Egyptian life 'Among the best writers in the Middle East today .. Al Aswany has his own magic' Guardian Translator(s): Harris, Russell. Num Pages: 480 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 234 x 153 x 33. Weight in Grams: 620.
Inside the walls of the Automobile Club of Egypt two very different worlds collide - Cairo's European elite and the Egyptian staff who wait on them. The servants, a squabbling, humorous and deeply human group, live in a perpetual state of fear under the tyrannical rule of Alku. When Abd el-Aziz Gaafar becomes the target of Alku's cruelty and his pride gets the better of him, a devastating act sends ripples through his family. Soon, the Gaafars are drawn into the turbulent politics of the club - both public and private - and servants and masters are subsumed by Egypt's social upheaval. Egyptians both inside and outside the Automobile Club will all face a stark choice: to live safely without dignity, or to fight for their rights and risk everything.
Product Details
Publisher
Canongate Books Ltd
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2016
Condition
New
Number of Pages
480
Place of Publication
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780857862204
SKU
9780857862204
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 2 to 4 working days
Ref
99-1
About Alaa Al Aswany
Alaa Al Aswany's first novel The Yacoubian Building was longlisted for The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2006 and has sold over a million copies worldwide. He is also the author of Chicago and the short story collection, Friendly Fire. His work has been translated into 29 languages and published in over 100 countries. Al Aswany was named by The Times as one of the best 50 authors to have been translated into English in the last 50 years. He speaks Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.
Reviews for The Automobile Club of Egypt
Myriad colourful details, intertwining narratives, and dramatic cliffhangers form an earthy, entertaining contrast to the novel's sober preoccupations - namely, the human spirit's capacity to both transcend and be crushed by oppressive systems
Publisher's Weekly, Pick of the Week
Al Aswany is a humane, perceptive, evocative storyteller . . . A master observer of the human condition, unblinking but sympathetic, and unputdownable
Literary Review
A wonderful storyteller
Spectator
Among the best writers in the Middle East today . . . Al Aswany has his own magic
Guardian
Praise for The Yacoubian Building: The stories in this novel are beautifully, simply told - the characters are alive from page one
Sunday Times
Rich and engaging
Daily Mail
An intriguing and highly charged novel . . . Alaa Al Aswany's eponymous structure is a microcosm of modern Egyptian society . . . A superbly crafted feat of storytelling
TASH AW
Daily Telegraph
Bewitching . . . a comic yet sympathetic novel about the vagaries of the human heart
New York Times Book Review
A superbly crafted feat of storytelling
Sunday Telegraph
A sharp, humorous novel
CAROLINE MOORHEAD
Spectator
There are many stories here. The book is elaborate to bursting point, but always controlled, always whole. It is as juicy and satisfying as a shiny apple, its taste both strange and familiar, compassionate and bitter
The Times
Fabulous, acutely observed story of human foibles, full of vivid scenes and extraordinary characters
Mail on Sunday
With its parade of big-city characters, both ludicrous and tender, its warm heart and political indignation, it belongs to a literary tradition that goes back to the 1840s, to Eugene Sue and Charles Dickens . . . The plotting is neat, the episodes are funny and sad, and there are deaths and weddings aplenty
Guardian
Addictively readable
Independent
Absorbing
Observer
Bewitching
Scotsman
Praise for Chicago: Brilliant . . . Al Aswany is like an Egyptian Anne Tyler
Sunday Times
A powerful, political page-turner
Daily Mail
A masterpiece, the warmest and finest and most involving Egyptian novel in the last thirty years
Open Letters Monthly
Publisher's Weekly, Pick of the Week
Al Aswany is a humane, perceptive, evocative storyteller . . . A master observer of the human condition, unblinking but sympathetic, and unputdownable
Literary Review
A wonderful storyteller
Spectator
Among the best writers in the Middle East today . . . Al Aswany has his own magic
Guardian
Praise for The Yacoubian Building: The stories in this novel are beautifully, simply told - the characters are alive from page one
Sunday Times
Rich and engaging
Daily Mail
An intriguing and highly charged novel . . . Alaa Al Aswany's eponymous structure is a microcosm of modern Egyptian society . . . A superbly crafted feat of storytelling
TASH AW
Daily Telegraph
Bewitching . . . a comic yet sympathetic novel about the vagaries of the human heart
New York Times Book Review
A superbly crafted feat of storytelling
Sunday Telegraph
A sharp, humorous novel
CAROLINE MOORHEAD
Spectator
There are many stories here. The book is elaborate to bursting point, but always controlled, always whole. It is as juicy and satisfying as a shiny apple, its taste both strange and familiar, compassionate and bitter
The Times
Fabulous, acutely observed story of human foibles, full of vivid scenes and extraordinary characters
Mail on Sunday
With its parade of big-city characters, both ludicrous and tender, its warm heart and political indignation, it belongs to a literary tradition that goes back to the 1840s, to Eugene Sue and Charles Dickens . . . The plotting is neat, the episodes are funny and sad, and there are deaths and weddings aplenty
Guardian
Addictively readable
Independent
Absorbing
Observer
Bewitching
Scotsman
Praise for Chicago: Brilliant . . . Al Aswany is like an Egyptian Anne Tyler
Sunday Times
A powerful, political page-turner
Daily Mail
A masterpiece, the warmest and finest and most involving Egyptian novel in the last thirty years
Open Letters Monthly