Hope Egypt – Hope for Egypt: Dream or Reality?
Don the theme, Dream or Reality? International Book Fair welcoming bibliophiles this month. And Egypt is the guest of honor.
Last year 5 guest of honor was Spain. By the end of the fair, which featured interviews with popular Spanish writers Julio Llamazares, Soledad Puertolas and Angelas Caso, we had learned so much about Spanish life and culture that we wondered all year long who the next guest country would be. Finally the day came and it was announced: Egypt. And we realized how little we know about this country we have been following closely in recent months, especially during the 18-day people’s movement.
When it comes to the literature of this sunny land that is striving to turn dream into reality, a single writer comes to mind: Naguib Mahfouz. Egyptian Ambassador to Turkey Abderahman Salaheldin summed it up perfectly when he said, “The situation is deplorable. Very few Egyptian writers have been translated into Turkish apart from Naguib Mahfouz. ”
But his talk concludes with a big ‘Inshallah’: “Many Egyptian writers are going to come to Istanbul in mid-November, and a public awareness of Egyptian literature is going to develop. Numerous Egyptian publishers have applies to the fair. And many intellectuals, most ‘Hz notably the Egyptian Culture Minister, are going to attend. We are expecting some positive steps to be taken when we meet with Egyptian publishers. In the years to come there is going to be great movement from Arabic to Turkish and Turkish to Arabic. Inshallah!”
Sneak Preview
Alaa Al Aswany
Born in 1957,Aswany studied dentistry in Chicago. Listed as one of the World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims on a list compiled by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center, this writer’s ironic novel about modem Egyptian society has been translated into numerous languages including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish,
