Had been quite excited about attending the international book fair at the Cairo Fair Grounds in Nasr City-but could not make it till today. And it being a Saturday and a school holiday, the place was swarming with people; it was tough getting to the shelves to have a “dekho”. For Arabic readers, the exhibition is a boon, but there is a good range of English titles too.
For books in English, enter through the gate 11 and make your way towards the Atelier Pavilion- here you will find books on just about everything-from agriculture to zoology. All the books are being sold at 10% discount, a higher rate of discount being offered on some. Next to the Atalier Pavilion is the Naguib Mahfouz Pavilion which is hosting the American University of Cairo -here the discounts are great-ranging from a minimum of 20% on all books to as high as 75% on certain books. Might be a good idea to make a list of books which you have coveted for some time (especially the dictionary and the encyclopedia types) and purchase them at this time of the year. Books on Egyptian history, the Pharaohs, Tutankhamen are plenty and available at bargain prices.
A word on the organization of the book fair-There are no signboards or banners put up to serve as a guide-had to ask for directions a number of times before reaching the area where the English titles were being exhibited. For expatriates, who can’t read Arabic and can speak only shuya shuya! (a little), navigating the huge grounds is extremely frustrating!
On a separate note, I recently finished reading “The Yacoubian Building” by Alaa AL Aswany, published in 2002. I, of course read the translated version; I do believe sometimes the sub-text is lost in translation-but I am glad that I read the book, nevertheless.
The book takes a look at the Egyptian society in the 1990’s. The protagonists are residents of the “Yacoubian Building”-the “real” Yacoubian Building exists to-date on Suleiman Basha Street in Cairo. Having lived in Cairo for the last three months, I was better able to relate to the places, events and circumstances as described in the book. The characters are well-etched and representative of the Egyptian society. The author has very skillfully narrated the turmoil, the change and the identity crisis that the country was going through at that time. He has done so by giving the readers a peek into the daily lives of the residents of the Yacoubian building, each with different ideologies, attitudes, circumstances and financial conditions-sometimes the characters seem so real that I felt as if I had met the person in Cairo. What I really liked about the book was the narrative-it is so gripping and “flows” so well that I managed to finish the book in one sitting!
Definitely worth reading, especially if you are staying in Egypt for some time.
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