A01=Sonallah Ibrahim
arabicliteratureclassic
Author_Sonallah Ibrahim
authoritativevoice
cairo1960s
Category=FV
culturalupheaval
developmentconflicts
displacedpopulations
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
forthcoming
freedomstruggles
geopoliticaldrama
historicfiction
hydroelectricproject
individualvsstate
narrativeofchange
nilemodernization
politicalallegory
postcolonialegypt
socialrealism
sovietinfluence
timelessconflicts
totalitariansociety
visionaryfiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781803096421
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 06 Jul 2026
- Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
A piercing portrait of the Egyptian nation in upheaval in the 1960s—and a powerful critique of progress made at a human cost.
In the summer of 1965, a journalist newly released from prison finds himself stranded at the sprawling site of the Aswan High Dam, the flagship project of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s modern Egypt. Amid oppressive heat, unreliable transport, a mysterious epidemic, and the oppressive gaze of state surveillance, he confronts a dramatic transformation underway: villages erased, communities displaced, and a rich past disappearing beneath the waters of a new lake. As the journalist journeys south along the Nile, his observations illuminate a key moment in Cold War politics and a society wrestling with the promises and perils of progress.
Originally published in Arabic in 1974, Star of August is a masterwork by Sonallah Ibrahim—a writer who lived through these upheavals firsthand—and a timeless exploration of ideology, power, and the price of change.
In the summer of 1965, a journalist newly released from prison finds himself stranded at the sprawling site of the Aswan High Dam, the flagship project of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s modern Egypt. Amid oppressive heat, unreliable transport, a mysterious epidemic, and the oppressive gaze of state surveillance, he confronts a dramatic transformation underway: villages erased, communities displaced, and a rich past disappearing beneath the waters of a new lake. As the journalist journeys south along the Nile, his observations illuminate a key moment in Cold War politics and a society wrestling with the promises and perils of progress.
Originally published in Arabic in 1974, Star of August is a masterwork by Sonallah Ibrahim—a writer who lived through these upheavals firsthand—and a timeless exploration of ideology, power, and the price of change.
Sonallah Ibrahim was one of Egypt’s best-loved contemporary novelists. He spent five years in political prison from 1959 to 1964. His works available in English include The Committee, That Smell and Notes from Prison, Zaat, Stealth, and Beirut, Beirut. Anne Willborn is an Arabic-to-English literary translator based in San Francisco.
