Egypt, Nigeria, United States… our selection of 3 novels that tell incredible epics from elsewhere
In the evening
from Alexandria by Alaa El Aswany
Ed. Actes Sud, 384 p. ; €23.50.
Around 1960, a group of middle-class friends met in the evening in a Greek restaurant in Alexandria (Egypt). With affection and respect for each other, they joyfully discuss life, art and politics, while the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser turns more and more into a dictatorship. Their island of freedom will soon find itself surrounded by lies, stupidity and the brutal force of power.
The author of The Yacoubian building marks another magnificent novel, around original and endearing characters, all in love with this thousand-year-old, cosmopolitan and tolerant city which is slowly disappearing. Soaked in humor and kindness, Alaa El Aswany’s pen intertwines the delicious portraits of the chocolatier Tony, the painter Anas and their loved ones.
The writer, himself forced into exile after the failure of the 2011 revolution, lucidly deciphers the inexorable decline of democracy as nationalism rises. If the novel is historically anchored, the parallel seems obvious with the current situation in Egypt.
Sophie Laurant
Our opinion: PPP
