Tales from Dayrut

Short Stories

Fiction & Literature, Short Stories, Literary, Mystery & Suspense
Cover of the book Tales from Dayrut by Mohamed Mustagab, The American University in Cairo Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mohamed Mustagab ISBN: 9781617971730
Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: The American University in Cairo Press Language: English
Author: Mohamed Mustagab
ISBN: 9781617971730
Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: The American University in Cairo Press
Language: English

This collection of fourteen connected stories and a novella, From the Secret History of Numan Abdel Hafez, takes us deep into Upper Egypt and the village of Dayrut al-Sharif, in which Mohamed Mustagab was born. To depict a world renowned for its poverty, ignorance, vendettas, and implacable code of honor, Mustagab deploys the black humor and Swiftian sarcasm of the insider who knows his society only too well. When the stillness of a day's end is shattered by a single gunshot, poignant beauty merges seamlessly into horror, and when a police officer seeking to unravel a murder finds himself with more body parts than he knows what to do with, violence tips as easily into farce. In counterpoint, the author's often surrealist imagination explores the mysteries of a landscape where seductive women haunt dusty paths and a man may find himself crushed like a worm beneath another's foot. Elsewhere, the horizons of 'my village' expand to include other countries (the author worked in the Arabian Peninsula for a number of years), where equally disastrous consequences follow on folly and self-delusion. Previously almost unknown in English, Mustagab's voice is both original and disturbing.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This collection of fourteen connected stories and a novella, From the Secret History of Numan Abdel Hafez, takes us deep into Upper Egypt and the village of Dayrut al-Sharif, in which Mohamed Mustagab was born. To depict a world renowned for its poverty, ignorance, vendettas, and implacable code of honor, Mustagab deploys the black humor and Swiftian sarcasm of the insider who knows his society only too well. When the stillness of a day's end is shattered by a single gunshot, poignant beauty merges seamlessly into horror, and when a police officer seeking to unravel a murder finds himself with more body parts than he knows what to do with, violence tips as easily into farce. In counterpoint, the author's often surrealist imagination explores the mysteries of a landscape where seductive women haunt dusty paths and a man may find himself crushed like a worm beneath another's foot. Elsewhere, the horizons of 'my village' expand to include other countries (the author worked in the Arabian Peninsula for a number of years), where equally disastrous consequences follow on folly and self-delusion. Previously almost unknown in English, Mustagab's voice is both original and disturbing.

More books from The American University in Cairo Press

Cover of the book American Travelers on the Nile by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Egypt in Flux by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book The Essential Yusuf Idris by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Diary of a Jewish Muslim by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Sharia and the Making of the Modern Egyptian by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Whatever Else Happened to the Egyptians? by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book The Fayoum by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Music and Media in the Arab World by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Amarna Sunset by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book The Cotton Plantation Remembered by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Poisoned Legacy by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Protecting Pharaoh's Treasures by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Blue Aubergine by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Creating Medieval Cairo by Mohamed Mustagab
Cover of the book Western Imaginings by Mohamed Mustagab
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy