The Harafish

During the trip to Egypt (hm, have I mentioned that I went to Egypt?), I finally finished The Harafish. The book tells the story of 10 generations of a family (each chapter covers a generation) living in Islamic Cairo at some point in history (I never figured out exactly when). The stories are somewhat interesting, although not interesting enough to recommend the book to someone who isn't headed to Egypt. The book became far more interesting once I got to Egypt and saw Islamic Cairo. The idea of each alleyway being a community with a clan chief suddenly made a lot more sense. And we had tea (twice) where the author used to hang out (as mentioned in a previous post). So if you are going to Cairo I would recommend picking up something by Naguib Mahfouz (and if you forget to before you go, there will be plenty of opportunities once you are there).