Awsani, Alao *: The Yacoubian Building

(2004)

From the pious son of the building's doorkeeper and the raucous, impoverished squatters on its roof, via the tattered aristocrat and the gay intellectual in its apartments, to the ruthless businessman whose stores occupy its ground floor, each sharply etched character embodies a facet of modern Egypt.
Bradshaw, Gillian: Cleopatra's Heir

(2002)

Caesarion was seen by some as the hope of Rome, by others as the folly of Julius Caesar's lust for the foreigner, Cleopatra. What might history have been like had Caesarion survived assassination and gone underground to hide his identity?
Durrell, Lawrence: The Alexandria Quartet: Justine (1957); Balthazar (1958); Mountolive (1958); Clea (1960)

This quartet of novels relates the meanderings, musings and passions of several British expatriates and Egyptian natives in the Alexandria of the 1940's.
Jacq, Christian: Ramses Series

(1997-1999)

Chosen by the pharaoh Seti, the 14-year-old Ramses sets into motion a tapestry of royal intrigue, treacherous plots and romantic adventures
Jong, Erica: Sappho's Leap: A Novel

(2003)

Jong recreates the life of the immortal poet whose arranged marriage to a repellent older man starts her off on a series of amorous adventures with both men and women, taking her from Delphi to Egypt, and even to the Land of the Amazons and beyond.
Mahfuz, Najib *: The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk (1956); Palace of Desire (1957); Sugar Street (1958)

From the end of WWI to 1935, al-Sayyid Ahmad's family struggles with poverty, faith and change.
Pearce, Michael: Mamur Zapt Series

(1990-2005)

M

Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt, British head of Cairo's secret police, skillfully maneuvers through the myriad bureaucracies of Edwardian Egypt.
Peters, Elizabeth: Amelia Peabody Series

(1975 - )

M

If Indiana Jones were female, a wife and mother who lived in Victorian times, he would be Amelia Peabody Emerson, an Egyptologist whose extraordinary adventures combine archeaology, comedy and romance.
Quayd, Muhammad Yusuf *: War in the Land of Egypt

(1998)

Egypt on the eve of the 1973 October war. A young man has been drafted into the army. His father, the village elder, persuades a poor night-watchman to send his own son as a stand-in — but the impersonation plan goes horribly wrong, with tragicomic results.
Qutb, Sayyid *: A Child From the Village

(2004)

Qutb's autobiographical novel offers a clear picture of Egyptian village life in the early twentieth century, its customs and lore, educational system, religious festivals, relations with the central government, and the struggle to modernize and retain its identity.
Robinson, Lynda S.: Lord Meren Series

(1994-2001)

M

Historical intrigue during the reign of Pharaoh Tutankhamen.
Serageldin, Samia *: The Cairo House: A Novel

(2000)

Written in English by an Egyptian now living in the United States, The Cairo House portrays a wealthy family's change of fortune when the reign of King Faruk is taken over by Nasser and then Sadat.
Soueif, Adhaf *: The Map of Love

(2000)

At either end of the 20th century, two women fall in love with men outside their familiar worlds. In 1901, Anna Winterbourne finds herself enraptured with Egypt and with Sharif Pasha al-Baroudi. Nearly 100 years later, Isabel Parkman, Anna and Sharif's descendent, is in love with a gifted and difficult Egyptian-American conductor with his own passionate politics.
Sussman, Paul: The Lost Army of Cambyses

(2003)

M

This debut archaeological adventure links an ancient legend of an invading Persian army overwhelmed by a sandstorm in the Egyptian desert with the politics of modern Egypt. Zoologist Tara Mullray is in possession of a wall fragment that may reveal the site where the army vanished and Luxor inspector Yusuf Khalifa suspects that two murders involving artifacts and mutilated corpses are connected to the fragment.
Tahir, Baha' *: Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery

(1996)

The villages of Upper Egypt, where Christians and Muslims have coexisted peacefully for centuries, are the background for this story of a young Muslim who, when his life is threatened, finds sanctuary in a community of Coptic monks.

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