A force of legend in Egypt.

Bidoun

A young son wanders Cairo trying to comprehend why his mother has disappeared

Stealth

by Sonallah Ibrahim

Translated from Arabic by Hosam Aboul-Ela

Set in the turbulent years before the 1952 revolution that would overthrow King Farouk and bring Gamal Abdel Nasser to power, Stealth — by Sonallah Ibrahim, one of Egypt’s most respected and uncompromising novelists — is a gripping story seen through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy. A young Egyptian’s coming of age proves halting and uncertain as he fails to outgrow dependence on his aging father and tries to come to terms with the absence of his mother. Through the boy’s memories, fantasies, and blunt observations, we experience his attempts at furtively spying on the world of Egyptian adults. His adventures portray a Cairo full of movie stars, royalty, revolutionaries, and ordinary people trying to survive in the decaying city.

Paperback(published May, 27 2014)

ISBN
9780811223058
Price US
15.95
Price CN
17
Page Count
224

Ebook(published May, 27 2014)

ISBN
9780811223065
Portrait of Sonallah Ibrahim

Sonallah Ibrahim

Egyptian activist and writer

A force of legend in Egypt.

Bidoun

The real drama of Stealth lies not in the unfolding of its plot but in its attempt to reconstruct the everyday life–sights, sounds, and smells–of pre-revolutionary Cairo. Here, Ibrahim’s achievement is Joycean. A world of vanished particulars is brought back to life.

Robyn Creswell, Harper's

Ibrahim has continuously re-invented the form and language he uses in his work, while probing deeply into the underlying tensions running through Egyptian society.

Yasmine El Rashidi, The New York Review of Books