S oqout Al-Samt (The Fall of Silence) is the fifth novel by Ammar Ali Hassan, following Shajarat Al-Abed (The Worshipper's Tree), Judran Al-Mada (The Walls of the Infinite), Zahr Al-Kharif (Autumn Flowers) and Hekayet Shamardal (The Tale of Shamardal); Hassan has also published three collections of short stories, two books in literary criticism and many studies on Sufism and social politics. He has received many awards. In this new tome Hassan attempts a comprehensive account of the 25 January Revolution by presenting a wide range of characters to illustrate the stories of the revolution and the stories of the two-and-a-half years that followed the fall of Hosni Mubarak, covering the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and that of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Hassan dedicates his book to the skeletal young man who was shot instead of him during one of the clashes in Tahrir Square, starting with the night of the political activist Hassan Al-Rafei's killing in Tahrir, the gloating on Twitter and Facebook over the death of a supposed atheist, and rumours among fellow activists in Tahrir that he was an agent of the security services; the general conclusion seems to be that Al-Rafei knew too much; every party was equally interested in eliminating him. The peculiar structure of the novel allows for a countless number of characters, each of which is involved in one of many political incidents that follow each other at a quick pace. They include Sebai Al-Dakhl Al-Kheshna, the thug accused of killing Al-Rafei; Hanan Al-Menshawi, the paralytic nurse who is injured in Tahrir; Khaled Al-Sab', the banker; Hanafi Selim, the young man who follows the extremist sheikh of his mosque; Karima Ismail, the activist who is tortured and subjected to a virginity test by the military; and Seif Abdel-Ghaffar, the lieutenant who kills one of the activists. Indeed this excavation of the revolution also yields the social types whom it brings into the light, as it were, politically: liberals, Salafis, MB members, military men, Mubarak partisans, sincere and opportunistic protesters, thugs, graffiti artists, banner painters, slogan authors, undercover police... The revolution provides its own temporal rhythm with major events happening on Fridays — and each Friday having a name — starting from the Friday of Anger on 28 January 2011. Hassan describes these events, demonstrating the psychological aspect of the revolution from both the viewpoint of the revolutionaries and that of the regime. He gathers even the smallest details: the role of street vendors and thugs, for example. The novel also details the roots of the beginning of founding Islamist parties, for example: how the idea came up in a conversation at the mosque. The language used by the author is very poetic, which isn't always appropriate for the brutal details of the revolution. There is also considerable verbosity and unnecessary digressions: human stories, mostly. Yet, as a record of the revolution the book seems to have great credibility. Hassan after all has a PhD in political science; he speaks with the authority of the scholar, which is a role he has played independently as well as within the academy, and he participated in the revolution from day one: as an eyewitness he can communicate a sense of verisimilitude, so much so that — in the fantasy of the paralytic nurse — he anticipates the fall of the MB several months before it happened. When she breaks into the presidential palace, the woman comes face to face with Mohamed “Spare Tyre” Morsi — “Spare Tyre” was the derogatory nickname used for Morsi as the MB's second choice of candidate, since due to having a criminal record Khairat Al-Shater, their first choice, could not legally run in the elections. Morsi is sitting on a gigantic chair, his head wrapped in a white piece of cloth, his feet buried in dust. He is looking at the sun, and in the background the gate of the palace is open and a huge crowd of angry people are coming through... Hassan criticises the MB throughout the novel, showing how they took advantage of the revolution and how Washington supported their regime in Egypt, with the silence of the title referring not only to Egyptians in the decades before the fall of Mubarak but also to the MB's secret arrangements with Washington through the mediation of SCAF. One way of doing this is to trace the murder of Hassan Al-Rafei through its investigation by judge Adel Abdel-Hakam, who finds all the evidence missing or damaged. At one point one of the characters says the MB would rather inherit than change the Mubarak regime, corruption and autocracy intact. The last chapter of the novel is symbolic, mentioning a tree called the tree of the revolution planted in the middle of Tahrir Square, watered by the blood of the martyrs and yielding seeds for trees of revolution to be so watered everywhere in Egypt. Hassan presents a re-evaluation of society on many levels, analysing feelings of love, hatred, deception, loyalty, betrayal, honesty and the ongoing struggle between characters and events, as between seculars and Islamists, sincere protesters and Mubarak partisans.
