Traces

by Ghitani, Gamal; Alghitany, Gamal; Al Ghitani, Gamal; Uthman, Nader

• ISBN13: 9789992179192
• ISBN10: 9992179198
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-01-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing

Summary

What remains of our memories after forgetting has done its work? How do we keep track of people we encountered and who were dear to us, the women we loved and the places we visited? How to extract those moments spent on nothing? How to avert the passage of time? Reaching his sixties, a man decides to put on paper the fragments of his memories and explore the dust that has survived their erasure. Neighbourhoods of old Cairo, scenes of childhood, his encounters and the awakening of his senses and the author's travels are found in stories, tales, and anecdotes as well as in questions about the paradoxes of forgetfulness or the mystery of the ultimate oblivion, when our consciousness merges with the absolute. Emotion and depth spring from these pages to make Gamal Al Ghitani one of the greatest Arabic writers.

Author Biography

Gamal Alghitany is one of Egypt's greatest writers. He was born in 1945 and educated as a tapestry-maker in Cairo. He wrote his first work when he was sixteen and became a war reporter at the age of twenty-three. He has written thirteen novels and six collections of short stories.