The Cheapest Nights
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
From the "genius of the short story," a collection illuminating the lives of the Egyptian lower class by one of the most important and innovative voices of Egyptian literature
A Penguin Classic
One of Egypt's most acclaimed and well-known authors, Yusuf Idris is heralded as a "renovator and genius of the short story" whose signature stylistic device--the combination of literary and colloquial language à la Huckleberry Finn--transformed Arabic literature. The Cheapest Nights is a collection of some of his most important works, the title story of which follows a man who, unable to sleep, angrily meditates on the state of his life and the extreme poverty in which he finds himself. With compassion, astute observational skills, and biting humor, Idris explores the fraught lives of the Egyptian working class, all the while turning a critical eye on the power structures that oppress them. His collection of short stories, with a foreword by author Ezzedine C. Fishere, is a piercing exploration of power and religion, love and death.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wassef's new translation of Idris's seminal 1967 story collection is a bracing glimpse into the lives of Egypt's poor and middle classes after WWII. In "Did You Have to Turn on the Light, Li-Li," a recent graduate of Al-Azhar University ministers to the destitute and addicted deep in the slums of mid-century Cairo, only to hopelessly fall for a beautiful congregant. In "The Shame," rumors of an indiscretion between two villagers prompts rage from their families and sets a countryside community on edge. In "The Dregs of the City," a judge coerces his maid into a sexual relationship, but soon finds his dominance challenged. Idris's assured prose, translated capably by Wassef, captures the high drama in the lust, labor, and resilience of daily life in a rapidly evolving Egypt. A doctor by trade, Idris saves his most cutting profiles for trained professionals the undertaker, judges, and doctors whose paternalism is thin cover for greed, vanity, and sexual opportunism. While the collection will be of particular interest to readers drawn to the fiction of the modern Middle East, Idris's imagination, craft, and emotional insight make this a must-read for all short story enthusiasts.
