Menorahs and Minarets
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€16.99
In the third part of Kamal Ruhayyim's trilogy, Galal, the son of a mixed Jewish/Muslim family returns to Egypt after ten years in Paris. What he finds is a society in flux, yet still stifled by convention. As his sense of alienation increases, Galal searches for a way to put down roots in a society where he feels he no longer truly belongs, as he struggles with his confused relationships with his extended family: Jewish cosmopolitan businessmen on one side and Muslim rural farmers on the other. Ruhayyim paints an uncompromising portrait of the rigid traditions, passed on from generation to generation, that reach into the most intimate areas of peoples' lives, as family elders curb or otherwise circumscribe how the younger generation lives and loves.
Kamal Ruhayyim, born in Egypt in 1947, has a PhD in law from Cairo University.He is the author of a collection of short stories and five novels, including Diary of a Jewish Muslim (AUC Press, 2014) and Days in the Diaspora (AUC Press, 2012). Through his career in the Egyptian police force and Interpol he has lived in Cairo and Paris. Sarah Enany, with a Ph.D. in drama, is a lecturer in the English Department of Cairo University. Her translation credits include works by Yusuf Idris, Mohamed Salmawy, Jerzy Grotowski, and Kamal Ruhayyim's Diary of a Jewish Muslim and Days in the Diaspora (AUC Press, 2014, 2012).