Shelf Life
Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller
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- 10,99 €
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- 10,99 €
Descripción editorial
“As a bookseller, I loved Shelf Life for the chance to peer behind the curtain of Diwan, Nadia Wassef’s Egyptian bookstore—the way that the personal is inextricable from the professional, the way that failure and success are often lovers, the relationship between neighborhoods and books and life. Nadia’s story is for every business owner who has ever jumped without a net, and for every reader who has found solace in the aisles of a bookstore.”
—Emma Straub, author of All Adults Here
“Shelf Life is such a unique memoir about career, life, love, friendship, motherhood, and the impossibility of succeeding at all of them at the same time. It is the story of Diwan, the first modern bookstore in Cairo, which was opened by three women, one of whom penned this book. As a bookstore owner I found this fascinating. As a reader I found it fascinating. Blunt, honest, funny.”
—Jenny Lawson, author of Broken (in the best possible way)
The warm and winning story of opening a modern bookstore where there were none, Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller recounts Nadia Wassef’s troubles and triumphs as a founder and manager of Cairo-based Diwan
The streets of Cairo make strange music. The echoing calls to prayer; the raging insults hurled between drivers; the steady crescendo of horns honking; the shouts of street vendors; the television sets and radios blaring from every sidewalk. Nadia Wassef knows this song by heart.
In 2002, with her sister, Hind, and their friend, Nihal, she founded Diwan, a fiercely independent bookstore. They were three young women with no business degrees, no formal training, and nothing to lose. At the time, nothing like Diwan existed in Egypt. Culture was languishing under government mismanagement, and books were considered a luxury, not a necessity. Ten years later, Diwan had become a rousing success, with ten locations, 150 employees, and a fervent fan base.
Frank, fresh, and very funny, Nadia Wassef’s memoir tells the story of this journey. Its eclectic cast of characters features Diwan’s impassioned regulars, like the demanding Dr. Medhat; Samir, the driver with CEO aspirations; meditative and mythical Nihal; silent but deadly Hind; dictatorial and exacting Nadia, a self-proclaimed bitch to work with—and the many people, mostly men, who said Diwan would never work.
Shelf Life is a portrait of a country hurtling toward revolution, a feminist rallying cry, and an unapologetic crash course in running a business under the law of entropy. Above all, it is a celebration of the power of words to bring us home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this bold and humorous debut, Wassef reflects on founding a modern bookstore, "the first of its kind in Cairo," at a critical time in the early aughts when Egypt's illiteracy rate was at an all-time high and revolution was on the horizon. With her sister, Hind, and friend, Nihal, Wassef made her passion for books into a profession and together the three women opened their bookstore, Diwan, in 2002, in the face of a patriarchal society and "bureaucratic despots." Wassef details the business's evolution, over her 14 years running it, from an audacious dream to the national success and household name it continues to be today, with several locations operating across Egypt. In chapters cleverly named after sections of the bookstore—from "Pregnancy and Parenting" to "Egypt Essentials"—she braids personal anecdotes, historical context, and day-to-day interactions with regulars (including the occasional disgruntled customer who tries to return a book purely because they didn't like it). Occasionally, Wassef's musings can feel disjointed as she toggles between these various modes, but her singular voice and witty observations make up for it. This is a book for book people, challenging the perspective of the traditional American and European publishing worlds with verve and style.
