Tuesday 15 April

Alaa Al Aswany
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            Alaa Al Aswany was born in 1957. He is a dentist by profession, and for many years practiced in the Yacoubian Building. He has written prolifically for Egyptian newspapers on politics, literature and social issues. 

All manner of flawed and fragile humanity reside in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor now slowly decaying in the smog and bustle of downtown Cairo: a fading aristocrat and self-proclaimed "scientist of women"; a sultry, voluptuous siren; a devout young student, feeling the irresistible pull toward fundamentalism; a newspaper editor helplessly in love with a policeman; a corrupt and corpulent politician, twisting the Koran to justify his desires.                  
"A wonderfully atmospheric, poignant and funny novel about the lives and loves of the residents of a once glamorous but now sad Cairo apartment block"
The Guardian

"Despite dealing with serious subjects, the experience of reading the novel is more akin to a guilty literary pleasure than a civic duty. The most emotionally compelling Egyptian novel published in English since Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy"
Independent

Programme at LBF

‘Literature Knows No Frontiers’: The English PEN Online World Atlas
Alaa Al-Aswany joint a panel to launch the English PEN World Atlas - a major new online resource, which aims to build awareness of Arab literature in the English-speaking world. Can the internet create new audiences for international literature? What are the implications for authors, agents and publishers?

In Conversation with Alaa Al Aswany in  The English PEN Literary Cafe
Stephanie Merritt interviewed Alaa about his work.

Book Signing in Blackwell Bookshop
Alaa signed copies of his book The Yacoubian Building