Captain Murad is busy planning for the Afterlife. He dreams of a grand, sunlit mausoleum on the banks of the Nile. To realize his pharaonic folly, the retired captain kindles an unlikely romance between Hazem, a feckless architect longing for immortality, and Asma, an impoverished single mother who strives for a better life for her children. As Murad’s tomb rises on the riverbank, so Hazem and Asma fall in love. A contemporary Egyptian romance of rare grace and wit, played out by characters trapped in their attitudes toward class and gender.
Mortal Designs
A Novel
Reem Bassiouney
Translated byMelanie Magidow
15 January 2016
248 pp.
13X20.5cm
ISBN 9789774167140
For sale worldwide
$16.95
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