Ibrahim Abdel Meguid
Egyptian novelist and author (born 1946)
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Ibrahim Abdel Meguid (Arabic: إبراهيم عبد المجيد, romanized: Ibrāhīm ʻAbd al-Majīd; born 2 December 1946) is an Egyptian novelist and author.[1] His best-known works form the "Alexandria Trilogy": No One Sleeps in Alexandria, Birds of Amber, and Clouds Over Alexandria.[2] These have been translated into English and French.[3] Some of his works have also been adapted for films and movies.[4]
Early life and education
Ibrahim Abdel Meguid was born in Alexandria. He studied philosophy at Alexandria University. He obtained his BA in 1973 and moved to Cairo in 1975.[5]
Literary Themes
Literary critics have drawn thematic comparisons between Abdel Meguid's work The Other Place and T.S. Eliot's 1922 poem The Waste Land.[6]
His book, Birds of Amber (2005) evokes Alexandria's cosmopolitanism with a sense of nostalgia combined with a desire for freedom from western colonial influence and for a kind of Arab cultural inclusiveness that could accommodate a mixture of foreign cultures.[7]
In No One Sleeps in Alexandria (1996), he details the struggles of the inhabitants during World War II and reimagines Egypt through the “trauma of modernization”.[8]
Works
- المسافات [Al-Masafât] (1983). Distant Train, translated by Hosam M. Aboul-Ela (2007)
- بيت الياسمين [Bayt al-yasâmin] (1987). The House of Jasmine, trans. Noha Radwan (2012)
- البلدة الأخرى [Al Balda al-ukhrâ] (1991). The Other Place, trans. Farouk Abdel Wahab (1997)
- لا أحد ينام في الإسكندرية [La Ahad yanam fil Iskandariya] (1996). No One Sleeps in Alexandria, trans. Farouk Abdel Wahab (2004)
- طيور العنبر [Toyour al-anbar] (2000). Birds of Amber, trans. Farouk Abdel Wahab (2005)
- عتبة المتعة [Eatabat almutea] (2007). The Threshold of Pleasure
- في كل أسبوع يوم جمعة [Fi koulli ousbou yawmou joumoua] (2009). Every Week Has a Friday
- أيام التحرير ['Ayaam altahrir] (2011). Days of Tahrir
- الإسكندرية في غيمة [Iskandriya fi ghayma] (2012). Clouds Over Alexandria, trans. Kay Heikkinen (2019)
- القاهرة هنا [alqahirat huna] (2014). Cairo is Here
Awards and honors
- 1996 Naguib Mahfouz Medal, inaugural winner for The Other Place[9]
- 1996 Cairo International Book Fair, novel of the year, for No One Sleeps in Alexandria
- 2004 Egyptian State Prize for Excellence in Literature from the Supreme Council of Culture[10]
- 2011 Sawiris Cultural Award, for Every Week Has a Friday
- 2015 Katara Prize for Arabic Novel, inaugural co-winner for Adagio[11]
- 2016 The Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Beyond Writing[10]
