The Automobile Club of Egypt
Alaa Al Aswany
ααααΆ 2021 Β· Penguin Random House Audio Β· ααα·ααΆαααα Peter Ganim
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From the most popular Egyptian novelist of his generation (βa suitable heir to the mantle worn by Naguib Mahfouzβ βThe Guardian), a rollicking, exuberant and powerfully moving story of a family swept up by social unrest in postβWorld War II Cairo.
Once a respected landowner, Abd el-Aziz Gaafar fell into penury and moved his family to Cairo, where he was forced into menial work at the Automobile Clubβa refuge of colonial luxury for its European members. There, Alku, the lifelong Nubian retainer of Egyptβs corrupt and dissolute king, lords it over the staff, a squabbling but tight-knit group, who live in perpetual fear, as they are thrashed for their mistakes, their wages dependent on Alkuβs whims. When, one day, Abd el-Aziz stands up for himself, he is beaten. Soon afterward, he dies, as much from shame as from his injuries, leaving his widow and four children further impoverished. The familyβs loss propels them down different paths: the responsible son, Kamel, takes over his late fatherβs post in the Clubβs storeroom, even as his law school friends seduce him into revolutionary politics; Mahmud joins his brother working at the Club but spends his free time sleeping with older womenβfor a fee, which he splits with his partner in crime, his devil-may-care workout buddy and neighbor, Fawzy; their greedy brother Said breaks away to follow ambitions of his own; and their only sister, Saleha, is torn between her dream of studying mathematics and the security of settling down as a wife and saving her family.
It is at the Club, too, that Kamelβs dangerous politics will find the favor and patronage of the kingβs seditious cousin, an unlikely revolutionary plotterβcumβbon vivant. Soon, both servants and masters will be subsumed by the brewing social upheaval. And the Egyptians of the Automobile Club will face a stark choice: to live safely, but without dignity, or to fight for their rights and risk everything.
Full of absorbing incident, and marvelously drawn characters, Alaa Al Aswanyβs novel gives us Egypt on the brink of changes that resonate to this day. It is an irresistible confirmation of Al Aswanyβs reputation as one of the Middle Eastβs most beguiling storytellers and insightful interpreters of the human spirit.
Once a respected landowner, Abd el-Aziz Gaafar fell into penury and moved his family to Cairo, where he was forced into menial work at the Automobile Clubβa refuge of colonial luxury for its European members. There, Alku, the lifelong Nubian retainer of Egyptβs corrupt and dissolute king, lords it over the staff, a squabbling but tight-knit group, who live in perpetual fear, as they are thrashed for their mistakes, their wages dependent on Alkuβs whims. When, one day, Abd el-Aziz stands up for himself, he is beaten. Soon afterward, he dies, as much from shame as from his injuries, leaving his widow and four children further impoverished. The familyβs loss propels them down different paths: the responsible son, Kamel, takes over his late fatherβs post in the Clubβs storeroom, even as his law school friends seduce him into revolutionary politics; Mahmud joins his brother working at the Club but spends his free time sleeping with older womenβfor a fee, which he splits with his partner in crime, his devil-may-care workout buddy and neighbor, Fawzy; their greedy brother Said breaks away to follow ambitions of his own; and their only sister, Saleha, is torn between her dream of studying mathematics and the security of settling down as a wife and saving her family.
It is at the Club, too, that Kamelβs dangerous politics will find the favor and patronage of the kingβs seditious cousin, an unlikely revolutionary plotterβcumβbon vivant. Soon, both servants and masters will be subsumed by the brewing social upheaval. And the Egyptians of the Automobile Club will face a stark choice: to live safely, but without dignity, or to fight for their rights and risk everything.
Full of absorbing incident, and marvelously drawn characters, Alaa Al Aswanyβs novel gives us Egypt on the brink of changes that resonate to this day. It is an irresistible confirmation of Al Aswanyβs reputation as one of the Middle Eastβs most beguiling storytellers and insightful interpreters of the human spirit.
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Alaa Al AswanyΒ is the author ofΒ The Yacoubian Building,Β which was long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2006 and was the best-selling novel in the Arab world for more than five years;Β Chicago,Β named byΒ NewsdayΒ as the best translated novel of 2006; The Automobile Club of Egypt; and the story collectionΒ Friendly Fire. He has received numerous awards internationally, including the Bashrahil Prize for the Arabic novel, the Kavafis Award from Greece and the Premio Grinzane Cavour from Italy. He was recently named by the LondonΒ TimesΒ as one of the best fifty authors to have been translated into English over the last fifty years.
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