Novel
The Heron
مالك الحزين
Ibrahim Aslan · 1983
Synopsis
A winter night, on the eve of the bread riots of January 1977, in the Kit Kat district of Imbaba, in Cairo. Youssef al-Naggar, a writer, would like to make his neighbours the characters of a novel and notes down their sorrows and their celebrations. Around the Awadallah café, more than two dozen inhabitants watch opportunities pass them by, and neighbours see their café change hands; a young artist awaits love or revolution. Youssef organises the funeral of a friend on the very day the street rises up, according to Perlentaucher.
Context
The novel appeared in Cairo in 1983. The Arab Writers Union placed it among the hundred best Arabic novels. Its English translator, Elliott Colla, considers that the author “single-handedly remade the Egyptian novel”, through characters who speak Egyptian and who laugh, reports ArabLit. Daoud Abdel Sayed made it into the film Kit Kat in 1991, which won awards in Paris and Damascus. Arlette Tadié translated it into French for Actes Sud in 2004 under the title Kit-Kat Café, and Elliott Colla into English in 2005.
Who it is for
A neighbourhood novel, populated by many characters, in which dialogue dominates; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
The author's first novel, adapted for the screen in 1991, and regarded as a landmark of the Egyptian novel.
Sources for this page 7
The pages consulted to check this page.