METRO: A Story of Cairo - Softcover

"For proof of the power of comics, look no further than Metro... It is not hard to see why the dictatorship was alarmed by the novel. In a deft black-and-white portrait of Cairo and its neighborhoods, a thriller unfolds along the metro system, giving a powerful insight into why the revolution took place." --Newsweek "There are twists and turns, murders and shadowy conspiracies... The Byzantine plot is saturated with a political commentary on the state of today's Egypt, depicted as a deeply dysfunctional country whose citizens take government corruption and repression as a given." --The National (Abu Dhabi) "A visual record of the zeitgeist, filled with poverty, sexual frustration, corruption, and abuse... Part thriller, part love story, part socio-political commentary." --Daily News Egypt

When Shihab runs afoul of a loan shark, all avenues of salvation in Mubarak's corrupt, oppressive Egypt are closed to him but one: robbing a bank. Things go wrong: In their blow against their crumbling society, Shihab and his friend Mustafa happen on evidence of vice that points to the upper reaches of the regime. On a wild chase through Cairo's metro system, Shihab and Mustafa turn to family and friends for refuge, which is offered only by Dina, a muckraking journalist who, for Shihab, will take the greatest of risks. In art as alive and immediate as Cairo itself, Magdy El Shafee has delivered an arresting and prescient portrait of a crumbling society and Egypt's coming eruption. A powerful story of comrades on the lam and an impossible love, "Metro" also sounds the cry for a better, freer future.