Deftly portrays the humanity found in the lives of contemporary Egyptians, who are navigating a country that is constantly examining its relationship with its history, religion, gender roles, and class distinctions, in a collection of stories that focus on the exquisite emotion of everyday life. Original
Though he has become contemporary Egyptian literature's greatest star, Alaal Al Aswany (THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING), who worked as a dentist for most of his life, has stayed closely tied to the common people of his country, and despite his political activism and love of democracy, his rare talent as an artist is to understand all facets of his complicated country and the people who inhibit it. In FRIENDLY FIRE, a collection of short-stories culled from the decades when the Egyptian publishing houses refused to publish his work, Al Aswany masterfully shifts registers from piece to piece: a tragedy is rendered darkly humorous when a character is distracted from grieving for his father by a delicious meal; the story of a one-legged boy determined to ride a bicycle is full of heartbreak and heroism; the bitter rants against Egyptian religion and society by the narrator of the book's novella has a quality of madness akin to Dostoyevsky's NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND.
- Genre: Fiction + Literature Themes
- Subgenre: Peoples + Cultures, Literary Genres + Types of Novels
- Publisher: Perennial
- Pages: 219
- Language: English
- Format: paperback
- Release Date: September 1, 2009
- Date Published: September 1, 2009
- Author: Ala Aswani