Synopsis A bestseller in Egypt, THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING revolves around the inhabitants of the apartment building of the title: a womanizing old man, his bitter sister, his scheming one-legged servant, a disillusioned shop girl and her optimistic boyfriend, and an elegant drug dealer seeking to work his way into politics. Alaa Al Aswany writes with a masterful combination of ribald humor, political insight, and psychological depth. He shows how the political corruption of Egypt filters down through every level of society, infecting the hopes, loves, and dreams of the country's hapless population.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2006-08-01 | | Series: | P.S. |
| Size | | Length: | 253 pages | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 7.2 oz |
Publisher's Note The lives and fortunes of the inhabitants of the Yacoubian Building, a once elegant, Art Deco apartment building in the heart of downtown Cairo, intertwine as the destinies of a fading aristocrat, voluptuous siren, devout young doorman, secretly gay newspaper editor, roof-squatting tailor, and corrupt politician come together. Reader's Guide available. Original. 40,000 first printing.
Industry Reviews "Alaa Al Aswany has conjured a bewitching political novel of contemporary Cairo that is also an engagé novel about sex, a romantic novel about power, and a comic yet sympathetic novel about the vagaries of the human heart. Even the least politically oriented reader will find it engrossing." (08/27/2006)
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