A01=Yusuf Abu Rayya
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
An Egyptian Novel
Author_Yusuf Abu Rayya
automatic-update
Category1=Fiction
Category=FA
Category=FB
Category=FBA
COP=Egypt
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
Fiction
FICTION General
FICTION Literary
Language_English
now in paperback
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
Rayya
softlaunch
Wedding Night
Winner of the 2005 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature
Yusuf Abu
Product details
- ISBN 9789774166839
- Weight: 271g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 10 Dec 2014
- Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
- Publication City/Country: EG
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
In a small town in the Nile Delta lives Houda the deaf and mute butcher's apprentice. Revealing the town's private stories through public sign language, Houda articulates the unspoken and the forbidden, to unsettle the apparent quietude of rural society. But his own unrestrained desire threatens to scandalize the town and rock its codes of public behavior. When it is reported that he has violated the sanctity of his employer's own house, the whole town, with the butcher and Shaykh Saadoun, the pretending Sufi, in the lead, rises to avenge itself and publicly humiliate and ridicule Houda. The elaborate ruse planned by the butcher and the shaykh, playing on Houda's hopes, dreams, and fantasies, is foolproof--but while Houda may be a dreamer, he is certainly no fool. This original, satiric novel, introducing the reader to every public and private corner in the life of a small town, is both a daring critique of contemporary Egyptian reality and a thoroughly good read, a remarkable novel of sustained carnivalesque suspense and wicked black humor that marks the arrival of a true literary talent.
Yusuf Abu Rayya (1955-2009) was born in Hihya in the Nile Delta. He wrote seven novels, five short story collections, and nine books for children, and was on the governing board of the Egyptian branch of PEN International. Wedding Night was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2005.
R. Neil Hewison is the translator of City of Love and Ashes by Yusuf Idris (AUC Press, 1998), and the author of The Fayoum: History and Guide (AUC Press, 4th ed. 2008).
