Mai Samih sees the revolution through the eyes of novelist Ahdaf Soueif On 2 May at 7pm, a literature presentation and book signing of Ahdaf Soueif's latest book, Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, was held at St John the Baptist's Church in Maadi, Cairo. The event was part of the Fourth Caravan Cultural Festival, a gathering of Middle Eastern and Western artists that aims at putting an end to sectarian differences between Muslims and Christians and building bridges between both sides via visual arts, film, literature and music so as to obtain a bilateral understanding between the two cultures. The opening of the festival on 26 April and was attended by the popular Egyptian actress Yousra. Ahdaf Soueif is a celebrated Egyptian writer, novelist, political and cultural commentator and activist. She has been famous for writing political and cultural articles in a number of significant international and local newspapers, including The Observer, Al-Akhbar, Nisf Al-Dunya, The Washington Post, Al-Shrouk, Sabah Al-Kheir, the Times Literary Supplement and many other prestigious publications. Soueif , who holds a PhD in Linguistics from the Lancaster University in the United Kingdom (1978), first obtained a degree in English Literature Department , Cairo University (1971) ND n MA in English literature from the American University in Cairo (1973). She is the founder of the Palestinian festival of literature, PalFest. Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, is Soueif's personal account of the 25 January Revolution. It tells the story of the 18 days she and her family spent encamped in Tahrir Square, together with thousands of other Egyptian patriots. She also tells her story of how the revolution occurred and of the historical events leading up to it. Soueif uses her unique faculties of description to weave in the story of Cairo in those 18 days, especially in the way she depicts the atmosphere and the sense of being part of the Tahrir body. She describes the persistence of the young Egyptians. "Once you're inside, the square is amazing. Even the light in here is different, the air is different. It's a cleaner world. Everything's sharper; you can see the leaves on the trees. Badly lopped, they're trying to grow out. Everyone is suddenly, miraculously, completely themselves. Everyone understands. We're all very gentle with each other. As though we're convalescing, dragged back from death's very door." Soueif's work has won several prizes including the Anglo-Egyptian Booker prize for her novel Map Of love in1999. Her works include: Aisha, (short stories), 1983 , Sandpiper, (short stories), 1996: Zinat al-Hayh wa Qisas Ukhra, (short stories), 1996: Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground, (essays), 2004: In the Eye of the Sun, (novel), 1992; I Think of You, 2007; Reflections on Islamic Art, 2011 and Cairo: My City, Our Revolution (a personal account of the Egyptian Revolution), 2012. When asked by a member of the audience about how she could take the strain of living outside Egypt for 25 years, she answered that she had convinced herself she was living in Egypt even when she was at her home in England, and this was enough to convince her that one of her doors opened on to the street in England and the other on to a street in Egypt. Soueif also believes that the 25 January Revolution is still in process of development: "The revolution has taken two dimensions, so far; the élite is playing their part now, striving in elections, and the revolutionaries, who will eventually succeed in putting things right," she said.
