Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid's new book brings the revolution to Akhbar Al-Youm

Renowned Egyptian writer Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid launches his latest book, Every Land Has a Birth, about Tahrir Square and the January Revolution

At a unique book-signing event, renowned Egyptian writer IbrahimAbdel-Meguid recently discussed his latest book, Every Land Has aBirth, newly published by Akhbar Al-Youm. The event, which tookplace Thursday was attended by a host of writers, including Nabil Zakiand Abdel-Wahab El-Aswany.
In his opening remarks, Abdel-Meguid explained that the idea of writingabout the revolution wasn't in his mind, but he decided to write afterthe revolution to record what he saw and heard in Tahrir Square. In the introduction to the book he wrote, "How can Ireally write about the greatest revolution in the history of theEgyptian nation?"
Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid's text includes stories about the uprising, spanning the period 1972 until the January 25 Revolution. During the 1970s, Abdel-Meguidwas part of the then-secret Egyptian Communist Party. He realisedafter he joined the party that every story he wrote was a kind of political statement. At this point his friend, the writerAbdel-Wahab El-Aswany, advised him to leave politics, saying: "Thereare hundreds, or even thousands, who can write and distributestatements, but very few can write literature."
Mohamed Barakat, writer and executive director of Akbar Al-Youm Organisation, said that "Abdel-Meguid's book could be considered arevolutionary epic. Its publication through Akhbar Al-Youm is a newbirth for it, as it comes back to its role in cultural production, whichit had abandoned for a long time. When I read Ibrahim Abdel-MeguidI'm in awe, and cannot really determine if he's a politician who'swriting novels or a novelist writing about politics."
In the same context, writer Nabil Zaki said that Abdel-Meguid's studyof philosophy taught him writing, while his Marxist tendencytaught him to write about the impoverished.
Abdel-Meguid's book includes 12 sections, each started with a piece of poetry drawn from the likes of Mahmoud Darwish, Ibrahim Abdel-Fattah and Pablo Neruda.It also includes comments from his Facebook page, from the first dayof the revolution until Mubarak stepped down.
The book, according to some readers, gives readers a chance to goback to Tahrir Square, to the spirit of the Egyptian Revolution,through Abdel-Meguid's unique expressive style, although the writerhimself states that it's very difficult to capture, throughwriting or images or paintings, what really happened there. It had tobe lived.
Abdel-Meguid declares that Tahrir Square told Plato, "Excuse me,but Utopia is really here."