Zaki Bey also believes that every woman on the face of the earth is surrounded by a sort of ethereal field inhabited by vibrations that though invisible and inaudible can nevertheless be vaguely felt, and that one who has trained himself to read these vibrations can divine the degree to which that woman is sexually satisfied. by poor families. Zaki Bey studied engineering in Paris. As Al Aswany himself says, he was driven to write The Yacoubian Building in great part out of nostalgia for the more tolerant, cosmopolitan downtown of the past, and as a statement against what he perceives to be growing conservativism and self-interestedness in Egyptian society. In 2004 Al Aswany published a novella and nine short stories in Arabic in a collection called Niran Sadiqa (Friendly Fire). He is the youngest son of Abd el Aal Basha Dessouki, who was a former prime minister and one of the richest men in Egypt before the revolution. Thus he believes, for example, that the outstandingly lovely woman is usually a cold lover in bed, while women of middling beauty or even of a certain degree of ugliness are always more passionate because they are truly in need of love and will make every effort in their power to please their lovers. He is the son of aristocrats and his mother was French. While taking full responsibility for any errors, the translator acknowledges his debt to Siham Abdel Salam, Jacinthe Assaad, Madiha Doss, Maria Golia, Fawzi Mansour, A. Rushdi Nasef, Sayed Ragab, Diya Rashwan, and, above all, the author for help on various aspects of the text.

The Yacoubian Building is his second published novel. Zaki Bey el Dessouki: An aging playboy with inherited wealth, but is a failed engineer. She catches the eye of Hagg Azzam and becomes his second wife. Nestled along downtown Cairo’s busy Talat Haarb Street, the Yacoubian building is easy to miss. The bestselling Arabic novel of 2002 and 2003, While Zaki Bey loves her, they fight constantly. they are also individuals. Introduction. tension. by violence. It had been expected, of course, that he would play a leading political role in Egypt using his father’s influence and wealth, but suddenly the Revolution erupted and everything changed. He uncovers hypocrisies of power, religion, and love, but he While the world of the book is undeniably that of today’s Egypt, the author achieves this sense of verisimilitude by taking recognizable features from multiple known originals to form new creations. there are occasional flashes of joy, most notably associated with sex, To the residents of the street he cuts a well-loved, folkloric figure when he appears before them in his three-piece suit (winter and summer, its bagginess hiding his tiny, emaciated body); with his carefully ironed handkerchief always dangling from his jacket pocket and always of the same color as his tie; with his celebrated cigar, which, in his glory days, was Cuban deluxe but is now of the foul-smelling, tightly packed, low-quality local kind; and with his old, wrinkled face, his thick glasses, his gleaming false teeth, and his dyed black hair, whose few locks are arranged in rows from the leftmost to the right-most side of his head in the hope of covering the broad, naked, bald patch. The Yacoubian Building is fast-moving and action-packed, with drama Residents say they are tired of being pestered and asked impertinent questions, and they are mostly unwilling to talk to outsiders. Nestled along downtown Cairo’s busy Talat Haarb Street, the Yacoubian building is easy to miss. The Yacoubian Building. The entrance itself, flanked by brightly lit displays of men’s shirts, looks like any other store.

roof that were originally attached to them are now separately owned

of the rooms on the roof for convenience, and for a short while this His business is located in the Yacoubian Building, and he aspires to hold a political office. Kamal el Fouli: He is a secretary of the Patriotic Party; although he grew up in poverty, he has become a corrupt politician with major power over Egyptian elections. The Yacoubian Building is not heavy going: the mood is never gloomy and there are occasional flashes of joy, most notably associated with sex, of which Al Aswany takes a positive view. Under the impact of all this the Basha soon died, the father’s misfortune leaving its mark also on the son. riches millionaire and political aspirant Hagg Azzam; and the wheeler-dealer tailor Malak Khilla, among others, as they conspire, romance, suffer, and dream in the shadow of the historic edifice. Taha el Shazli: The son of the Yacoubian Building doorkeeper, who lives in shacks on the roof.

A street in the sky But now that this highly popular and controversial book is being made into a big-budget Egyptian film, one can’t help but wonder if the author’s cinematic-like approach was not a calculated decision all along. What they read made them wish their residence had continued to dwell in obscurity.

Meanwhile his ex-girlfriend has to Rags-to-riches millionaire Hagg Azzam has installed his secret second wife For instance, it shows readers how there are Islamic extremist groups that are thriving in society.

In their stead, a new breed of Cairenes has moved in. requirements, he is rejected because of his background. ... Malak. He has a wife and a son, but is the love interest of Hatim Rasheed. Alaa Al Aswany, born in 1957 and a dentist by profession, has written from an early age. He is the latest but certainly not the last downtown resident to have his life altered by the Yacoubian’s newfound fame. The book focuses mainly on the residents of the Yacoubian building, a once-chic but now rundown edifice that acts as a metaphor for Cairo's own deterioration. policeman, but though he does brilliantly at school and meets all the The bawwab of adjacent 32 Talaat Harb — where scenes for the movie were filmed, since the crew was banned from the Yacoubian — got to hobnob with starlets and was even recruited for a small role. When her father died, she began earning money for her family by working at a clothing shop. The distance between Baehler Passage, where Zaki Bey el Dessouki lives, and his office in the Yacoubian Building is not more than a hundred meters, but it takes him an hour to cover it each morning as he is obliged to greet his friends on the street. The residents’ sensitivities, while heartfelt, are also somewhat ironic. Hagg Muhammad Azzam: An extremely wealthy and successful businessman who started out as an immigrant shining shoes on the street. In the hot evenings of autumn 2002, Cairo's streetside cafes were packed with … refrains from judgement, leaving the reader to make their own evaluations. Souad in one of the apartments. Every one had her special flavor, and he would often laughingly compare the bedding of Lady Kamla with its rules of protocol and that of that beggar woman he picked up one night when drunk in his Buick and took back to his apartment in Baehler Passage, and whom he discovered, when he went into the bathroom with her to wash her body himself, to be so poor that she made her underwear out of empty cement sacks.

Some important information on Zaki Bey el Dessouki should be provided. corruption that permeate Egypt, from the highest levels of government and

Busayna: The oldest daughter of a poor family that lives in the shacks on the roof of the Yacoubian Building.

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