Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #807 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'An intriguing and highly charged novel!Based on a real-life building in downtown Cairo, Alaa Al Aswany's eponymous structure is a microcosm of modern Egyptian society!Al Aswany manages to capture the challenges facing much of the developing world!a superbly crafted feat of storytelling.' Tash Aw, Daily Telegraph '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 'In its affectionate portrait of feckless and flawed humanity, this is a rich and engaging book; in its analysis of the Islamist threat, it is a brave and indispensable one.' Daily Mail '"The Yacoubian Building" is the sort of dense neighbourhood novel which, though quite out of style when set in London or Paris, has been revived for the banlieue of downtown Cairo. 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.' Guardian 'Al Aswany is excellent on the bitterness young Egyptians feel towards a country where hard-won qualifications are worthless unless backed with money!an absorbing portrait of the struggle to survive in the Arab world's "best friend of the West".' Observer 'You don't get many writers like Alaa Al Aswany in the West any more. "The Yacoubian Building" paints a marvellous picture of modern Egypt with all its hypocrisies and fanaticism -- the gulf between rich and poor reminiscent of Dickensian London. Like the late Naguib Mahfouz, Alaa Al Aswany is a world writer, making Egyptian concerns into human ones and beautifully illuminating our always extraordinary and sometimes sad and baffling world.' The Times 'This bestselling Arabic novel is an engaging series of stories, peopled with wonderful characters, that builds to a passionate climax.' Daily Telegraph 'Alaa Al Aswany is not just a polished storyteller, expertly juggling a diverse cast of characters, but offers fascinating insights into a modern Muslim society.' Sunday Telegraph 'Delves into a mix of power, currption, sex exploitation, poverty, and extremism!lucidly captures the varied aspects of Egyptian life: straight, gay, rich, poor, powerful, and powerless.' Egypt Today 'The colourful stories are interwoven seamlessly in a narrative packed with incident and inevitability. Inevitability, because in 'The Yacoubian Building' the corruption of the neo-colonial government is a natural consequence of colonial history, and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism is a natural by-product of the resistance of such corruption. Evocative and moving.' Sunday Business Post 'A brave novel!with its multiple storylines and accusatory indignation, the novel could have got stuck somewhere between soap opera and soap box. In fact it is far more fascinating. Alongside progressive political and social sentiments are some antiquated attitudes!its sprawling cast of rich and poor, linked by sexual obsession or thirst for money in a capital city like a monstrous seething warren, can call to mind Balzac!What lingers most from this enthralling novel is its close quarters portrayal of a fragmented nation dangerously torn between state ferocity ad Islamist fanaticism.' Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times 'For 2002 and 2003 "The Yacoubian Building" was the bestselling novel in the Arab World. With its agreeable and unobtrusive translation by Humphrey Davies it deserves as wide an audience in the West. People in Egypt, Al Aswany has his narrator observe, are particularly interested in the lives of others, delving into them with 'persistence and focus', and it is his particular skill as a novelist at fixing his large cast of characters, and their intricately mingled lives with such sharpness and humour that makes this book so enjoyable. Poignant, sad, funny, often disquieting, "The Yacoubian Building" is a remarkable book.' The Spectator '"The Yacoubian Building" was a best-seller in Egypt, and last year a feature film based on the book opened there to popular and critical acclaim (though members of the Egyptian parliament tried to censor certain scenes). Although the highest budget Arab film ever made, it still awaits its breakthrough in the West. Let's hope that Humphrey Davies fine translation helps win the wider audience both novel and film deserve.' The Sunday Times

Sunday Telegraph
'...offers fascinating insights into a modern Muslim society.'

Sunday Times
'a restless human drama and a resonant history lesson.'

Customer Reviews

An interesting slice of Cairo life
Al Aswany populates the Yacoubian Building with a set of socially diverse characters and then relates a set of stories involving various residents. This device allows him to create a portrait of life in Cairo; the injustices suffered by the poor, the corruption of the elite, the political and economic realities of a repressed society and the way religion is used by different players to achieve their purposes.

The main characters are each introduced in some detail and because there are a large number of them, this means that lengthy digressions into the background of characters are still taking place halfway through the book. This tends to almost bog the narrative down in places. The other disadvantage of having so many central characters is that it makes it difficult to develop them in any real way. Though a number of them do emerge by the end of the book as having the necessary depth to make them interesting, others remain close to being stereotypes. The novel is an interesting slice of modern Cairo life and as such is a rewarding read, but it doesn't quite ever become totally engrossing.

From corruption to impassioned devotion, a cross section of humanity
Set in Cairo around the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, The Yacoubian Building covers the lives of the varied assortment of residents of the decaying Art Deco apartment block of the title. The residents range from the wealthy who live in the apartment building proper to the poor who inhabit the cabins on the roof. The wealthy include a self made business man who courts political success, a gay editor in chief of a French language newspaper passionately in love with a policeman, and an aging yet virile playboy. The residents on the roof include young devout Muslim who as a very able student who aspires to join the police, his attractive and initially naïve girlfriend who lives with her mother, and a shirt maker who eventually sets up business on the roof.
One or another of this varied collection of humanity engage in or suffer deceit, corruption, illegal dealings, domestic strife, rejection, fundamentalism, torture, and sexual desire, harassment and fulfilment. For some the outcome is frustration or even tragedy, for others unexpected joy and satisfaction. Altogether this provides a very colourful picture of life in Egypt during a difficult period. An engaging and revealing read.

A microcosm of life in a chaotic city.....
The Yacoubian Building is set in Cairo at the time of the first Gulf War. The building itself is a somewhat ramshackle apartment block which has seen better days. The diverse inhabitants reveal a microcosm of life in this chaotic city. In the apartments are shady businessmen and a corrupt politician (who has lodged his second wife there), a gay newspaper editor and an aging Lothario who keeps an office for the main purpose of seducing women. On the roof more people live in improvised shacks - the doorkeeper's family (including the son who becomes radicalised), a beautiful young woman who fights constantly with her employers to keep her virginity and a manipulative and scheming shirtmaker.

The narrative moves between all these characters (and more) as they all strive to find success and happiness within the corrupt social and political world in which they find themselves. It is written with great verve and imagination and all his characters come alive for the reader. Although much of the work is dark and depressing it is also sympathetic and humane.

However, I doubt very much that the Egyptian Tourist Office would recommend this book!