Cairo
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An intimate telling of the wild days of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution
Ahdaf Soueif was born and brought up in Cairo. When the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 erupted on January 25th, she, along with thousands of others, called Tahrir Square home for eighteen days. She reported for the world's media and did, like everyone else, whatever she could.
Cairo tells the story of the Egyptian Revolution, of how on the 28th of January when The People took the Square and torched the headquarters of the hated ruling National Democratic Party, The (same) People formed a human chain to protect the Antiquities Museum and demanded an official handover to the military; it tells how, on Wednesday, February 2nd, as The People defended themselves against the invading thug militias and fought pitched battles at the entrance to the Square in the shadow of the Antiquities Museum, The (same) People at the centre of the square debated political structures and laughed at stand-up comics and distributed sandwiches and water.
Through a map of stories drawn from private history and public record Soueif charts a story of the Revolution that is both intimately hers and publicly Egyptian.
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'Captures the intoxicating romance of the weeks when anything seemed possible. Souief writes with verve and passion, offering the authentic voice of the liberal Egyptian who risked everything because she wanted her country to have freedom and democracy' TELEGRAPH
'Should serve as a heartening reminder of what people are capable of achieving when united and courageous' ECONOMIST
‘Ahdaf Soueif is extraordinary' EDWARD SAID, author of Orientialism
‘A convincing and skilful writer' SUNDAY TIMES
'Highly unusual and richly impressive' GUARDIAN
Ahdaf Soueif was born in Cairo. She is the author of Aisha, Sandpiper, In the Eye of the Sun and the bestselling novel The Map of Love which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999. Her collection of cultural and political essays, Mezzaterra, was published in 2004, as was her translation of I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti. She is the founder of the Palestine Festival of Literature, PalFest.
Ahdaf Soueif is also a journalist and her work is syndicated throughout the world. For the last five years she has been a key political commentator on Egypt and Palestine, and throughout the 2011 uprisings in Cairo Adhaf Soueif reported front the ground for the Guardian, and appeared on television and radio. She lives in London and Cairo.