Description
A police officer tortures one last suspect in the most important assignment of his career: to find the ultimate Truth…
A woman confesses her love to a mysterious masked man in a video rental shop, agreeing to make the ultimate sacrifice for him…
A disgraced doctor confronts a man whose job it is to spread baseless, career-ending rumours…
Once the centre of the ancient world and, for a thousand years, a welcoming destination for explorers and tourists, Cairo has more recently become a city determined to forget. Since 2013, the events of Tahrir Square and Rabaa al-Adawiya have been gradually erased from its official history; writers have been imprisoned, publishing houses raided, and independent news sites shut down by the authorities. With the Egyptian government currently moving many of its ministries to the desert new builds, east of Cairo, the city’s future (as well as its past) seem uncertain.
Here ten new voices offer tentative glimpses into the city’s life at a time when writing directly about its greatest challenges is often too dangerous. With satire, surrealism, humour and a flair for the microcosm, these stories guide us through the slums and suburbs, bars and backstreets of a city haunted by an unspoken past.
Translated by Adam Talib, Raphael Cohen, Basma Ghalayini, Thoraya El-Rayyes, Raph Cormack, Andrew Leber, Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, Elisabeth Jaquette, Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Yasmine Seale.
