YACOUBIAN BUILDING, translated by Humphrey Davies

255pp., paperback, Reprint, London, (2007) 2011

First published in Arabic in 2002 under the title 'Imarat Ya'qubyan. First published in English in the USA in 2005.

Taha, the son of the doorman at the now dilapidated Yacoubian Building in Cairo, has aspirations for himself and his girlfriend. When his hopes are dashed because of corruption, he joins an Islamic student organisation, with devastating consequences.

"This addictively readable evocation of Cairo at a time of political and social ferment, during the first Gulf War, is both a damning critique and a love letter to a city and its inhabitants ... Al Aswany's interwoven narratives ... marry the humanist realism of Balzac with the hyperbolic momentum of Egyptian soap opera ... The most emotionally compelling Egyptian novel published in English since Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy." Independent

"A straight-talking tale of sex, lies and Islamism ... [Al Aswany's] eye for details and sympathy for his characters create an absorbing portrait of the struggle in the Arab world's 'best friend of the West.'" Observer

Egyptian dissident writer Alaa Al Aswany was born in 1957 in Cairo. A dentist by profession, his first office was in the Yacoubian Building. He was a founding member of the Egyptian Movement for Change, or Kefaya. His works in English include the novels The Automobile Club of Egypt, Chicago and The Republic of False Truths, and a collection of short stories, Friendly Fire.