Sleep Phase
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
After seven years in prison, Warif is released to a changed Cairo. Freedom so far has been endless, inscrutable meetings with official-looking strangers, trying to get his job as a translator back. This new Cairo, busy with expats and bureaucrats, is proving disorienting: What is he supposed to make of these self-assured newcomers who are so certain of his obsolescence, his subjugation, his solitude? They seem happy to provide him with a salary, if he’s willing to give up the work that gave his life meaning. As his encounters more-and-more resemble interrogations and the futility of trying to escape the system set against him threatens to suffocate him, Warif escapes into the vivid colors of the city, looking deeper and deeper into the food, the people, the buildings, and the flowers, until what’s real blurs into fantasy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dreams and reality blur in this caustic and Kafkaesque tale from Egyptian author Kheir (Slipping). Translator Warif Shaheen finds his native Cairo transformed upon his release after seven years in prison for a Facebook post. Chain cafés have replaced market stands, busy intersections have been converted to parks, and, most troubling, every organization and government bureau is staffed by foreigners, who provide a stipend to the locals in exchange for the right to be there. All Warif wants is his old job as a translator back, and as he goes through a series of condescending interviews, it ironically comes to light that the current situation mirrors the one he'd flippantly called for in his offending post, in which he'd suggested the country would be better off if it were run by foreigners. Warif attempts to adjust to the new normal with the help of his on-and-off girlfriend, Sally Adam, and childhood friend Wagdi, but he's plagued by panic attacks and flashbacks to his time in prison. The plot ramps up after Wagdi goes missing and Warif discovers a dark, perplexing secret of the new regime. This eerie and taut tale will leave readers with plenty to chew on.
