Portraits from Cairo of the 1970s

The collection of eleven fictional short stories, in this book, were based on events that the author witnessed, and people whom he knew during the decade of the 1970s, while living in Cairo, Egypt. The characters in the stories are real, but the names and plots were seasoned with “fiction,” to protect people’s privacy due to the sensitive issues discussed in the stories. The stories explore the lives of these memorable characters (in the author’s life) and how they were affected by the political, historical, cultural, and social events of Egypt of the 1970s. Each story is autonomous with the protagonist acting as the thread that tie it together, while exploring the country through the eyes of these unforgettable events and touching characters. Although these are uniquely Egyptians, the characters are also universal in their hopes, struggles, and emotions. One story (The Forgotten Black Pharaohs) explores the life of a Nubian office boy and the subtle discrimination against his people in Egypt’s history. A fascinating aspect of the events explored in the stories is their direct impact on shaping Egypt in the 1980s and 1990s, and eventually, on the uprising (the Arab Spring) of 2011!