CAIRO - At the age of 29, Ahmed Murad became a personal photographer to Mubarak, a job he did for five years until the despot was overthrown. Murad had mixed feelings about the job. “I was ready to explode because I had been living a dual life for five years, like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,” Murad told the British newspaper The Guardian in a recent interview. “During the day, I spent many hours working with Hosni Mubarak – a man who had been burying the dreams of Egyptians for three decades – and at night I was with my friends, who were cursing him and wishing he would disappear. What was really making me angry was that I knew the Egyptian people were destined to live better and he was the reason why that wasn't happening.” It was only on February 11 that Murad joined his friends in Tahrir Square to celebrate Mubarak's stepping down. Still, Murad's presence among the presidential cliques inspired him to write Vertigo, a thriller about corruption in Egypt. He said that his novel was not meant for publishing. However, Mohamed Hashem, the owner of Merit Publishing House in Cairo, praised the work and printed it to critical acclaim. Vertigo has been reprinted seven times since it was first published in 2007. The novel is set in Vertigo Bar, an imaginary haunt of the rich, powerful politicians and business moguls. One night, the protagonist, who is also a photographer, and his camera become coincidental witnesses to a massacre inside the place. His unwelcome presence makes him the target of a dramatic pursuit from the powerful culprits. Despite the stark resemblance of the novel to the reality in Egypt under Mubarak, the author of Vertigo was not harmed in any way. “The regime didn't read the novel, they didn't like reading at all. I think that was my luck,” Murad, a father of two children, told The Guardian. The English translation of the novel has been published by Bloombury as part of an effort to introduce noted Arab writers to English readers. Describing the novel as “an adventure that deserves encouragement”, prominent Egyptian writer Sonallah Ibrahim says that the nascent author has a deep knowledge of the technicalities of novel writing. “Its writer has a marked analytical sense and an insight into present-day Egyptian society,” adds Sonallah. Born in Cairo in 1978, Murad is also a filmmaker and a graphic designer.
