
As Ddoha Said
Bahaa Taher(Author)
Arabia Books Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 30. April 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
145 pages
978-1-906697-16-7 (ISBN)
Description
In Egypt a new era has dawned, but the dawn has taken an ominous turn. President Gamal Abdel Nasser has just proclaimed the first in a series of nationalization decrees, the stock exchange has shut down, and its parking attendant, Sayyid, is staring at penury. Across the street, the office of the Ministry's Supervisory Board of Administrative Organization is engulfed in an eerie silence, and the narrator, one of the two remaining fulltime occupants of that nearly defunct government office, has fallen desperately in love with the other, Doha - forceful, erudite, and a complete enigma, with a spiritual bond to the Egyptian goddess Aset. In this sophisticated, richly textured novel the author explores such themes as apathy and despair, courage and self-sacrifice, ambition and temptation, disillusionment and political faith, and, above all, commitment and betrayal.
Reviews / Votes
'...an interesting small novel of government service during the Nasser years, complete with hope and disillusionment, and several of the characters are particularly well-drawn.' -- The Complete Review 20090101More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
With flaps
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 124 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
174 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-906697-16-7 (9781906697167)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Bahaa Taher was born in 1935 in Luxor and published his first short story in 1964. After living in Switzerland in the 1980s and '90s, he returned to Egypt and received much literary acclaim. He received the State Award of Merit in Literature, Egypt's highest honour for writing, in 1998. In 2008 Bahaa Taher became the first writer to be awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the 'Arabic booker') for his novel Sunset Oasis.