Swedish writer Anne Edelstam arrived in Cairo this week to launch the Arabic translation of her book Three Ladies in Cairo that was translated into Arabic by Marwa Adam, forwarded by the late former UN Secretary General Botrous Ghali, and published by Al-Dar Al-Masriah Al-Lubnaniah in Cairo.

Edelstam will sign her book at Diwan bookstore in Zamalek, on Tuesday, 15 March at 7:00pm.

Three Ladies in Cairo is a fictionalised true story of how three Swedish women – her grandmother Hilda, her mother Ingrid, and Anne herself – discover Egypt and learn to cope with the cultural differences throughout the twentieth century’s social changes, up to the country’s first free elections in June 2012.

Covering more than a century of women’s experiences, the book offers a deep and extended perspective on Egypt’s politics and societies, from the vantage point of both outsiders and insiders. 

The writer weaves the ancient and the political history into the lived reality showing the reader not just the broader picture behind Egypt’s history and political upheavals but what it was like to live through the changes.

In his forward, Boutros Ghali describes the work as a "fascinating book" that allows us to experience the evolution and transformation of Egypt during three vital decades via the original and very personal stories of three generations of women in a Swedish family.

Anne Edelstam is a well known social anthropologist, Islamic historian, and journalist, and is currently working at the UNESCO in Paris and is the third of three generations of women with close connections to Egypt.

Programme:

Tuesday, 15 March, 7:00pm

Diwan Bookstore in Zamalek, Cairo