Myriad colourful details, intertwining narratives, and dramatic cliffhangers form an earthy, entertaining contrast to the novel's sober preoccupations - namely, the human spirit's capacity to both transcend and be crushed by oppressive systems * * Publisher's Weekly, Pick of the Week * * Al Aswany is a humane, perceptive, evocative storyteller . . . A master observer of the human condition, unblinking but sympathetic, and unputdownable * * Literary Review * * A wonderful storyteller * * Spectator * * Among the best writers in the Middle East today . . . Al Aswany has his own magic * * Guardian * * Praise for The Yacoubian Building:
The stories in this novel are beautifully, simply told - the characters are alive from page one * * Sunday Times * * Rich and engaging * * Daily Mail * * An intriguing and highly charged novel . . . Alaa Al Aswany's eponymous structure is a microcosm of modern Egyptian society . . . A superbly crafted feat of storytelling -- TASH AW * * Daily Telegraph * * Bewitching . . . a comic yet sympathetic novel about the vagaries of the human heart * * New York Times Book Review * * A superbly crafted feat of storytelling * * Sunday Telegraph * * A sharp, humorous novel -- CAROLINE MOORHEAD * * Spectator * * There are many stories here. The book is elaborate to bursting point, but always controlled, always whole. It is as juicy and satisfying as a shiny apple, its taste both strange and familiar, compassionate and bitter * * The Times * * Fabulous, acutely observed story of human foibles, full of vivid scenes and extraordinary characters * * Mail on Sunday * * With its parade of big-city characters, both ludicrous and tender, its warm heart and political indignation, it belongs to a literary tradition that goes back to the 1840s, to Eugene Sue and Charles Dickens . . . The plotting is neat, the episodes are funny and sad, and there are deaths and weddings aplenty * * Guardian * * Addictively readable * * Independent * * Absorbing * * Observer * * Bewitching * * Scotsman * * Praise for Chicago:
Brilliant . . . Al Aswany is like an Egyptian Anne Tyler * * Sunday Times * * A powerful, political page-turner * * Daily Mail * * A masterpiece, the warmest and finest and most involving Egyptian novel in the last thirty years * * Open Letters Monthly * *
