War in the Land of Egypt - Softcover

Yusuf Qa'id; Olive Kenny; Lorne Kenny; Christopher Tingley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0863560342 ISBN 13: 9780863560347

Publisher: Al Saqi Books, 1986

Synopsis

This series is designed to bring to North American readers the once-unheard voices of writers who have achieved wide acclaim at home, but are not recognized beyond the borders of their native lands. With special emphasis on women writers, Interlink's Emerging Voices series publishes the best of the world's contemporary literature in translation or original English.

About this title

Review:

Yusuf Al-Qa'id's War in the Land of Egypt was banned in his native country but published to wide acclaim outside of Egypt. The first of his novels to be translated into English, it tells the story of Masri (the only character with a name), a young Egyptian peasant who is sent into the Egyptian army on the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur war in place of a rich man's son. Al-Qa'id tells his tale from several different perspectives: that of the village headman (the Umda) whose son Masri will replace; the broker who finds Masri; the hapless young man's father; his friend; his commanding officer; and finally, the investigator sent to look into the switch. The one character we do not hear from is Masri.

It soon becomes apparent why this book was banned in Egypt, as Al-Qa'id uses the events surrounding the war to indict the bureaucratic corruption and social inequality rife in his country. Each character represents a different facet of Egyptian society with Masri himself, by virtue of his name (which, in Arabic, translates as "Egyptian"), standing for Everyman. Political this novel doubtless is, but it is also a masterfully crafted piece of fiction and a genuine page-turner as well. --Alix Wilber

About the Author:

Yusuf is one of Egypt's outstanding writers with eleven novels and four short-story collections.

Abdallah al-Nasser was born in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, in 1953 and studied Arabic Literature at al-Imam University, Riyadh. He is at present cultural attache in London and editor of Al-Thaqafiyah, a quarterly journal concerned with Arabic culture. His first collection of short stories. The Mirage (1998), dealt especially with the experience of confronting an unbalanced model of modernization.

About this edition

• Publisher: Al Saqi Books
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0863560342
• ISBN 13: 9780863560347
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 196