The Bachelors of Egypt is a recently published contemporary novel set in Egypt 2011.
Book Synopsis:
Two brothers facing regular life challenges during an irregular time of a Nation's history, after their parents passed away, they both had no one but each other. Karim, the older brother, works as a Senior Marketing Executive for a Multinational Corporate, "Macky". An energetic young man with ongoing career accomplishments and a social life full of joyful moments post working hours. Karim’s brother Ali is an ambitious Media student aiming to use his future profession as a tool to make the world a better place after graduation.
Timeline of the story (2011-2012):
In Egypt, the year 2011 marks a brief Era of Enlightenment (post the Jan 25th revolution), with booming figures of book readership, and Internet usage, when most citizens had an increasing interest "To Know", along with mixed feelings of Fear, Hope, Belonging, and Excitement... regardless of their affiliations and beliefs. Liberal voices were rising in a society commonly-believed to be conservative, existential struggles started hitting many minds within the middle class; why are we alive? And what is worth dying for? were among the popular questions. Debates about Economic Stability, Justice, Feminism, Emigration, right and left wings’ ideologies were all integrated within a single scene... bringing all taboos up for discussion.
The book is 90% fictional, 10% factual, and it's the reader's responsibility to differentiate.
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Book Reviews:
The book takes you to its own time and place, floating between romance, politics, and humor, allowing you to realize what human beings across cultures can relate to, and what challenges are exclusive to the people of “Egypt”.
One of the most interesting contemporary novels. With every chapter, you discover more about the characters and the Egyptian culture. The first part of the book is good, but the last chapters are brilliant.
PS: Forget about Karim and Ali, Tarek is my favorite character.
PS: Forget about Karim and Ali, Tarek is my favorite character.
The only book that talks about the Egyptian revolution from a perspective that we all can relate to. After a few pages you start considering yourself a part of the family. As an Egyptian girl , i can relate to every single word in this awesome book.
An interesting and engaging contemporary novel, by a promising writer who belongs to the so called ‘revolutionary generation’. I find it a successful attempt to document the political incidents that followed the 25th of Jan Revolution, while exploring live stories of a group of Egyptian youth who people worldwide can relate to and who share beautifully-written conversations about Egyptian culture, economic conditions, relationships, feminism, life decisions … and most importantly about the true meaning of life and what’s worth dying for.
An excellent reflection on Modern Egypt, showcasing the structure of the Egyptian society, and the great influence of the 2011 revolution.
A creative contemporary narrative that captures the essence of the Egyptian society post the 2011 revolution.
An amusing contemporary novel full of insightful dialogues and existential struggles. I found myself living among the characters, sharing their thoughts and feelings.
A great mix of presenting social arguments, drama, and a sense of humor, very well written. It's this kind of books that bring people of the world together. Anyone would relate to it one way or another. Totally enjoyable...Loved it & hope I get to read more of those!
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Book Excerpt
A few hints about Egypt’s Social Structure:
People usually live with their parents until they die, or get
married. For female members of the society, curfews may be applied by their
parents or husbands, regardless of their age. Hitting 30 years as a Bachelor/Bachelorette
is usually considered “Social Suicide”, as members of your age group build
their own Friends/Family Units’-mix that you can rarely interact with or relate
to.
“No sex before marriage” is a traditional custom, reinforced
by religious values; however, the rule is being broken by an increased number
of individuals over the years.
Commonly believed to be a 90% Muslims, 10% Christians
society, however, statistics are never accurate in Egypt.
Timeline of the story (2011-2012):
Post the Jan 25th revolution; politics dominated
the cultural scene in Egypt, with ongoing clashes between demonstrators on one
side, and Army/Policemen on the other. Hopes of Freedom, democracy, and better
wealth distribution were slowly slipping away from revolts, and reviving with
every new clash against the regime’s forces.
A universal connection was built among revolts across
nations, with hash-tags like #Rome #Greece #Tahrir #OccupyWallStreet all merged
in single tweets as signs of Solidarity.
In Egypt, the year 2011 marks a brief Era of Enlightenment
with booming figures of book readership, and Internet usage, with most citizens
utilizing their rights to be informed, regardless of their affiliations and
beliefs. Liberal voices were rising in a society commonly-believed to be
conservative, existential questions started hitting minds within the middle
class, why are we alive? And what is worth dying for?
Debates about Economic Stability, Justice, Feminism,
Emigration, right and left wings’ ideologies were all integrated within the
scene.
When some were
struggling to reform the country, others were attempting to disconnect
themselves from politics and “just live their own lives”.
Chapter 1
The Game Plan
Getting up in the early morning,
switching off his phone’s alarm after its third ring, and hitting the ground
with feet of steel, having a shower in 7 minutes, while listening to the song:
“Rising up back on the street
Did
my time, took my chances
Went
the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just
a man and his will to survive
So
many times it happens too fast
You
change your passion for glory
Don't
lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You
must fight just to keep them alive
It's
the eye of the tiger
It's
the thrill of the fight
Rising
up to the challenge of our rival
And
the last known survivor
Stalks
his prey in the night
And
he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger
Suiting up and adjusting his tie in no
time, getting into his car just fast enough to beat the morning traffic.
Reaching the workplace, greeting a
couple of colleagues on the way to his cubicle, turning on his computer and
asking the middle-aged office boy for a cup of Turkish coffee… Karim logs in,
checks a few work emails, most of them from sales people approaching him with
various promotional proposals and opportunities; getting a booth at an event,
outdoor Ads spots for his company’s Brand, and advertising agencies offering
all sorts of services from Digital Marketing to print ads, TV ad spots and all
other traditional tactics. He scrolls as if he’s reading the morning
newspapers, just skimming through without digging deep or replying to anyone…
until he found this email about a trip organized by his Macky’s HR Department,
where all employees will get a 7 days stay on the beaches of Ein El-Sokhna, and
this is when a smile starts to exist on his face, as the office boy delivers
him the coffee.
Here comes the good man with the
perfect cup of coffee, he said.
Ahmed (the office boy): well, your mood seems to be in the
perfect place today.
Karim: Maybe it is. How are you today? Any news about your
daughter?
Ahmed: She’s still in terrible pain, the doctor told me that we’d
better handle her surgery before this month ends, or her situation may get more
complicated.
Karim: I hope she gets better soon, and I ask God to help her
through.
Ahmed: Thanks man, just keep her in your prayers if you please.
Karim: Sure, take care, and keep me posted.
Karim gets off his desk and starts moving across the
corridors, reaching for a HR Specialist’s desk, Mona, “Good morning little
princess”.
Mona: The princess that you just recalled now when you got that
trip email.
Karim: You know you’re always on my mind.
Mona: I know we all are; just me and every other female you’ve
ever had a conversation with.
Karim: It doesn’t change the fact that you can’t live without me.
Mona: haha, I can take my chances, anyway, don’t worry about the
trip, I’ve already checked your name, and I have prepared an awesome schedule…
you just have to convince someone to stay with you, as we have reserved all
rooms as “Doubles”.
Karim: Come on, a single room for the single Karim sounds much
better.
Mona: People staying together has to do with “Team Building”
objectives that we have to achieve during the trip. You also have to work with
your room partner on a report highlighting how the program has helped you
communicate with each other more effectively, as well as with other employees
on the trip… so make sure that you pick a pro, so you can deliver it with the
bare minimum like you always do.
Karim: Haha you’re pulling up the useless organization
development talks against me?
Mona: Well, without these useless objectives, the upper
management won’t have approved this “Treat” or any other, especially that it
would cost almost double the price to keep everyone in single rooms. Next time
try to “pull up” some gratitude against me.
Karim: Well, long live Macky and its objectives.
He takes off and starts walking around
the floor to reach another cubicle, that of a man wearing a perfectly formal
suit.
Karim: Hey Hesham, where is the last season of “How I met your
mother”?
Hesham: In ten minutes, you’ll find it on
your computer.
Karim: Waiting for you bro, I ran out of series, and you know how
slow streaming may get to be over here.
Hesham: Right on it *wink*.
At the end of the working day, on his way out of the company, Karim
meets another colleague, Tarek Yehia.
Tarek: Kimo, do you know about Ahmed’s daughter?
Karim: Sure, I’m praying for her.
Tarek: We are collecting donations for the surgery.
Karim: Are you sure he needs the money? I talked with him about
her health today and he didn’t mention any shortage.
Tarek: He’s an office boy Karim, what do you think? Should he beg
for money before you think he needs it?
Karim: I don’t have much now, take that 100.
Tarek: A 100 pounds? That’s all you can give?
Karim: Stop nagging, that’s all I have now, I’ll get you a couple
of hundreds tomorrow.
Ali is sitting in Talents’ University in Cairo (TUC) with a
bunch of students in a lecture hall waiting for their professor for almost an
hour on their first class.
Ali: Is this lecture really worth the wait, for how long should
we disregard our sense of humiliation?
Mohamed Eissa: I don’t know, but as it is the first
lecture, the professor is supposed to highlight the assessment criteria for our
graduation projects, and the guidelines to follow until we’re done. Whoever the
bastard is, we have to stay and try to leave a good impression.
A 50 year old bald man walks into the
room, reaches to the instructor’s stand, “Hello students, excuse me for being
late, I had a long meeting with the Dean, and you know how insignificant your
time is compared to ours. Now that we’re all here, I should define the
guidelines of the graduation project for, but first, let me introduce myself, I
am professor doctor Anwar AbdAllah and as you already know, I will be
supervising each and every one of you till the end of this term. You don’t have
to introduce yourselves, as you’ll be able to bore me with your names during
the next three months *a few hypocritical chuckles and smiles from some
students* I have been here for decades, just long enough to be certain that you
ignorantly scheduled yourselves in my class, for if you had any idea you would
have chosen to register with any other professor. Yes, my dear students, I am
as tough as a professor gets to be, and your lives are all mine until you
graduate or fail this course; getting yourselves stuck here for at least one
more year. Call yourselves blessed with exceptional time management skills if
you get enough time to sleep and shower. I will be meeting you once a week to
make sure that you’re assigned with the adequate amount of tasks to keep you
miserable till the next meeting.”
He moved to the whiteboard on which he
wrote his email with a marker, professor.doctor.Anwar.AbdAllah@Tuc.edu.eg “This
is my email address, you should send me the names of your team members, each
team shall consist of five students, the person who sends me this email will
act as the contact person, and I should never receive any messages from anyone
else in the group. I will send you back your group’s appointments for the next
week, in which you’re going to present me your topic and project map.
You can Google the methods of
conducting such a map, if you have any questions, feel free to ask former
graduates, now get yourselves out of my class and don’t show me your faces till
next week.”
The professor collects his stuff and gets out of class after
his students, Ali walks with a few friends to an on-campus cafeteria. He drinks
coffee, while the rest of his friends eat noodles and snacks.
Eissa: Who in hell got us registered with that crazy professor?
Ramy: Do you really think anyone in the administration office
would have cared enough to ask about our preferences? I knew that all choices
could’ve been horrible, but I didn’t imagine he’d be that arrogant.
Ali: Sure, just arrogant enough to get these loud laughs out of
your heart. *Friends Laughing*
Ramy: Instead of laughing, you should be thanking me for paving
our way to the best grades, my brother told me that they typically give out a
single “A” Grade for a project out of each class… with a professor like that,
you may even imagine a class with no “A’s” at all.
May: No need to worry about the “A” Grades, any passing mark is
fine, as long as we can get ourselves out of here, 15 years of Academia is more
than enough for me.
Eissa: What do you think we should choose for a topic?
Ali: I think we need some time to think about it, let’s meet
tomorrow night to exchange some ideas and start brainstorming. Now get
yourselves out of my cafeteria and don’t show me your faces till tomorrow
night.
With a few smiles, Ali, Eissa, and Ramy head their
separate ways, while May and Gina walk together towards May’s car in the
parking lot, in which they have a little conversation:
May: One more useless college day, any plans for tonight?
Gina: Every weekend’s plan, getting in a warm tub, eating lunch,
dressing up and then we can go wherever you want.
May: This will probably give us some time to think about a
topic for that professor as well, I was wondering why you kept your mouth shut
all day.
Gina: I thought I’d better wait to listen to Ali’s thoughts
first, didn’t want to seem stupid.
May: Well, well, well, seems like a new crush for the little
girl.
Gina: In the class I just realized how good he looks, but when
we got out he totally appeared to be the group’s brain, did you see how he made
fun of Ramy?
May: Yeah, but they’re guys, making fun of each other is what
happens with every other group out there.
Gina: But none of them are actually funny with green eyes and a
cute smile, he’s just what I need now to get over my stupid ex.
May: Maybe tonight we can think a little less about Ali and a
little more about ideas for the project.
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