The Family Library project, traditionally associated with the ex-first lady, Susan Mubarak, has finally taken its first steps away from the previous regime’s shadow. The project is now associated with the General Egyptian Book Organisation and has a new board of renowned writers and critics.

The first books selected the new literature series belong to two prominent Egyptian authors, Khairy Shalaby and Mohamed El-Bosaty.

The short story collection by late novelist, Khariy Shalay, is called Asbab Al-Kay bel-Nar (Reasons for Cauterization with Fire). The collection is written in a colloquial style, bringing the reader closer to the story that dissects the Egyptian personality, which despite being simple and poor on the outside, is turned into sagacity and wisdom by the novelist.

El-Bosaty’s novel, Sakhab Al-Bohayra (The Lake’s Clamour), tells the story of an old fisherman who only sees life through the lake and his boat, with the world around him centred on his hole-ridden fishing net. Readers realise that the boundaries of the lake are the world as we inherited it from our ancestors, which we believed to be the entire universe, unable to grasp that there’s an ‘other’ somewhere away from that shore.