Novel
That Smell
تلك الرائحة
Sonallah Ibrahim · 1966
Synopsis
A man whose name we do not know leaves prison, where he has spent years for political reasons that the narrative does not specify. He is under house arrest: every evening, a policeman comes to his home to sign his notebook. By day, he walks around Cairo, sees old acquaintances again, smokes, tries in vain to write and fails with women. The narrative proceeds in short sentences and statements, without commenting on what it shows.
Context
Written in three months after its author's release from prison, according to Adam Shatz, the book appeared in 1966 and was immediately seized: the censors objected to a sex scene, whereas the author saw in it a pretext for keeping silent about prison. Truncated editions followed in 1969 and 1971, and the full text appeared only in 1986. Richard Jacquemond translated it for Actes Sud in 1992, and Robyn Creswell gave an English version in 2013.
Who it is for
A short narrative, under one hundred pages in French, with no sustained plot, written very close to everyday gestures.
Prizes and reception
Seized as soon as it was published, it was later hailed by J. M. Coetzee as a milestone of Egyptian literature.
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