The Book of Cairo: A City in Short Fiction (Reading the City)

<div>A police officer tortures one last suspect in the most important assignment of his career: to find the ultimate Truth&#8230;<br><br> A woman confesses her love to a reclusive, masked man in a video rental shop...<br><br> A disgraced doctor confronts a man whose job it is to create rumours that spread across Cairo&#8230;<br><br> Founded over a thousand years ago under the sign of Mars &#8220;the victorious,&#8221; Cairo has long been a welcoming destination for explorers and tourists, drawn by traces of the ancient cities of Memphis and Heliopolis. More recently, the Egyptian capital has become a city determined to forget. Since 2013, the events of the &#8220;Arab Spring&#8221; have been gradually erased from its official history.<br><br> The present is now contested as writers are imprisoned, publishing houses raided, and independent news sites shut down. With a new Administrative Capital being built in the desert east of Cairo, the city&#8217;s future is also unclear.<br><br> Here ten new voices offer tentative glimpses into Cairene life, at a time when writing directly about Egypt&#8217;s greatest challenges is often too dangerous. With intimate views of life, tinged with satire, surrealism, and humour, these stories guide us through the slums and suburbs, bars and backstreets of a city haunted by an unspoken past.</div>