Novel
The Sixth Day
Le Sixième Jour
Andrée Chedid · 1960
Synopsis
Cholera strikes Cairo. The old Om Hassan, who lives with an invalid husband, discovers that her grandson Hassan is stricken. She distrusts the health authorities, hides the child and sets out to save him by her will alone, sustained by a belief: on the sixth day, the sick person either dies or is reborn. To reach this sixth day, she leaves the city with him and takes the road along the Nile, counting each passing day.
Context
The novel appeared from Julliard in 1960, fourteen years after its author settled in Paris; a study published in Egypt sets its action during the cholera epidemic of 1947-1948. Youssef Chahine, whom this catalogue includes for another work, made a film of it in 1986, with Dalida as the grandmother. Isobel Strachey translated it into English for the London publisher Serpent's Tail, and the book circulates in France in series intended for young readers.
Who it is for
Fewer than two hundred pages in French, in simple, vivid language, accessible from adolescence.
Prizes and reception
Adapted for the screen by Youssef Chahine in 1986, and reissued in paperback for young readers.
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