Recommended Reading on Cairo
We’ve updated our recommended reading links with a lot of good books, both fiction and non-fiction. A few we’d really like to highlight for anyone interested in learning more about Cairo and Egypt:
Cairo Cosmopolitan: Politics, Culture, and Urban Space in the New Middle East
Published in 2006 by AUC Press (We are constantly amazed by the wonderful books put out by AUC Press)
Cairo Cosmopolitan is a collection of essays about various aspects of life and economics in modern Cairo. Some of the essays were a little too dense for me, reading more like an economics thesis, but there are a number of essays which make the book really worth it such as essays on public green spaces, movie theaters, the rise of modern shopping malls, and restoration of historic places in Cairo.
City of Sand by Maria Golia
Wow, this book will answer all your questions about the history of Cairo, Egyptian government, housing, education, Egyptian Arabic, and every other question you could possibly have. There are so many details and anecdotes that it’s hard to get it all with just one reading.
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
If you’ve been paying attention to fiction from Egypt, you’ve surely come across this controversial novel which paints a hopelessly corrupt picture of Egypt through the lives of the residents of the Yacoubian building in downtown Cairo. It seems as though every publication in Cairo has had an interview with the author during 2006. Check out NPR’s interview with the author and read some excerpts from the novel.
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