The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany - translated from Arabic and first published in English in 2004
There is no plot as such to this novel. It is about a selection of people who live in the Yacoubian Building in Cairo in around 1990. The rich ones live and work in the apartments in the building while the poor live in tiny rooms on the roof and their lives partly intertwine. It isn't a jolly book - several of the characters die and most of them aren't very nice people. The book tackles the subjects of religious fanaticism, homosexuality and the sexual exploitation of women and describes the realities of life in modern Cairo very well. 6/10
30th December 2010
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