Chicago

by Alaa Al Aswany

Chicago was first published in weekly instalments in the opposition newspaper Al-Dustour. "The main strength of The Yacoubian Building was its political edge. Al Aswany is more daring here: in the last third of the novel, a visit by President Mubarak to the students in Chicago is effectively satirized. (...) Farouk Abdel Wahab's English translation is often awkward. Most of all, the sexual element is so persistent as to seem pathological." - Sameer Rahim, Times Literary Supplement

[fiction in newspapers?]