The Yacoubian Building
Alaa Al Aswany
The real Yacoubian Building still stands on Talaat Harb Street in downtown Cairo, built in 1934 for ministers and foreign residents, its rooftop storage rooms later filled by migrants from the countryside. Al Aswany, who once kept a dental practice in it, runs the novel through an old aristocrat, a doorman's son turned away by the police academy, a young woman worn down by her employers, a newspaper editor, and a self made millionaire buying his way into parliament. Published in Arabic in 2002.
Why you should read this
Read this for a panoramic view of a single Cairo apartment building whose residents let Alaa Al Aswany survey corruption, class anxiety, and religious extremism in the city's contemporary life. The novel became an Arabic-language best-seller read widely across the region before its film adaptation.
- Field
- Literature
- Form
- Fiction
- Published
- 2002
- Themes
- Arabic LiteratureLiteratureContemporary
