Black Magic: A Modern Arabic Novel - Hardcover

El-Gazzar, Hamdy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9774161041 ISBN 13: 9789774161049

Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press, 2007

Synopsis

As a fourteen-year-old, Nasir was entranced by his father’s gift of a camera, finding in it the means both to possess beauty and to assert himself. Now a hack working for state television, Nasir meets Fatin, an independent woman older than himself who has escaped a suffocating marriage and is secure in taking what she wants from life. An affair begins that quickly pulls Nasir into a whirlwind of incandescent erotic and emotional obsession.
In a world of superficiality, materialism, violence, and sexual hysteria seen through the unforgiving lens of his camera, Nasir’s life is in limbo. A yearning for escape and a fear of loneliness propel him into a relationship in which he is at once enraptured and non-committal. The resolution of this volatile mix lies in a violent confrontation between repulsion and desire.

Black Magic was awarded the prestigious Sawiris Foundation Prize in Egyptian Literature in 2006.

About this title

About the Author:

HUMPHREY DAVIES earned his doctorate in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the translator of Thebes at War by Naguib Mahfouz (AUC Press 2003) and The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany (AUC Press 2004).

Hamdy el-Gazzar was born in 1970 in Giza, Cairo, and graduated in philosophy from Cairo University. Since 1990 he has published several short stories and articles in the Arabic press, as well as writing and directing three plays. He is presently director of the research department of the Culture TV channel in Cairo. Black Magic, his debut novel, was awarded the Sawiris Foundation Prize in Egyptian Literature in 2006.

Review:

"Through the power of his imaginative black magic, [Hamdy el-Gazzar] resurrects slumbering art forms with a skill rarely seen in a young writer." - Salah Fadl, Al-Ahram

About this edition

• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 9774161041
• ISBN 13: 9789774161049
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192