56th Cairo Int’l Book Fair: Publishers’ Picks (I)

Dina Ezzat , Friday 17 Jan 2025

Ahram Online presents a sequel of several reviews of new volumes available during the top annual cultural events at the 56th Cairo International Book Fair held from 23 January to 5 February. These titles were offered and shared by the publishers themselves.

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Al-Hanin Ila Al-Dae’ira Al-Moughlaka - Sirah (The Closed Circle Nostalgia – Autobiography) by Badr Al-Refa’i, Al-Karma, pp 216


“I was born on 8 October 1948. I must have been born a communist child.” This is the first line of the first paragraph of the autobiography of Badr Al-Refa’i.

However, this book is not about the communist movement in Egypt in the 1960s or political activism. Indeed, there are references to both – from the point of view of a son who grew up in the household of a passionate communist father and a mother who was a defender of labour rights.

It is a remarkable biography of a man who shares a very real and unassuming account of his life: first in the vicinity of the rural household of his paternal parents, then in a popular neighbourhood in Cairo and beyond. His love life and mixed marriage, his career, and his hopes and fears are all shared.

Anecdotally, this book says much about the norms and lifestyle of most Egyptians in the years after the 1952 Revolution. It sheds light on education, culture, and political discourse in the 1960s, especially after the 1967 defeat.

It recalls Egypt's political leaders from the perspective of a man whose highest priority was fairness and equity.

Above all, it draws a first-hand and unbiased profile of the much-celebrated student movement in Egypt in the 1970s.

El-Refa’i’s account of his years as a military conscript and his participation in the 1973 War is perhaps a story of a generation – not just a personal account.

This autobiography pays tribute to a generation born in the late 1940s who witnessed Egypt’s most turbulent and anxious moments.

 

Maraya El-Cinema – Bayan Al-Adab wal Ensaniyat (Mirrors of Silver Screen – Between Literature and Humanities), Edited Volume by Salma Moubarak, pp 287


This volume adds to a steadily growing list of titles published over the past 10 years to examine the history of Egyptian cinema.

Composed of several chapters written by several authors, including the final editor of the volume, Salma Moubarak, the book approaches cinema production in Egypt from two perspectives. The first examines cinema production as a tool and a result of embracing modernity. The second contextualizes cinema production within the broader space of arts and humanities – with no particular order of priority or importance.

According to Walid El-Khachab, an academician and author of several publications and books on the Egyptian silver screen, adaptation is an essential aspect of cinema production related to modernity.

El-Khachab argues that adaptation generally refers to the production of Egyptian films based on either foreign novels or movies. French literature and American cinema were influential sources for Egyptian cinema production, especially in its early decades. This adaptation introduces new norms and ideas to the Egyptian audience through the silver screen.

The evolution of cinema production in Egypt and the variety of films put out through consecutive decades have allowed for the introduction of autobiographic movies – not just in producing documentaries but also in movies.

According to Dalia El-Seguini, an academician and photographer, a prominent example is Youssef Chahine's quartet: Alexandria Why, Alexandria Again and Forever, An Egyptian Story, and Alexandria-New York.

She added that Nadia Kamal's documentary Salata Baladi (An Egyptian Salad) is a good example of an autobiography-based documentary.

This genre is always challenging, given the many taboos filmmakers should know while writing or screening their films.

Ultimately, this book is about the need to perceive the Egyptian silver screen as a tool of entertainment, modernization, and archiving. It is divided into segments that address diverse elements of the silver screen.

 

Akhawiyat Al-Tabaka Al-Motawsseta, (Brotherhood of the Middle Class) by Omar Taher, Al-Karma, pp 112

 

In essence, this is a short story of a man who survived an acute heart attack by a sheer miracle of prompt medical intervention and follow-up procedures. It shares reflections on the choices, and the lack thereof, in one’s life, the questions of life and death, commitment and change of preferences as life goes by.

However, it is also a book about a man from the heart of the middle class who is turning 50 years old — a man who was born and raised in the very centre of Upper Egypt and ended up being a writer, a spouse, and a father of two girls.

While recalling elements of his journey in a strictly non-memoir style, Taher offers his readers a profile of life in Egypt in the past few decades – as people change and the cities themselves undergo significant alterations.

Perhaps this book is a more subtle read, reflecting on the sense of “imprisonment” one experiences as one has to bow to life twists and turns that are simply out of control and about the possibility of being saved from a major crisis against all odds.

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