A Tale Downtown

About this book

A tale of a nation running and panting dreams. Can a "pen scratch" assassinate years of estrangement's toil? In Cairo's heart, where roads intersect "downtown," begins the tale of Sherif Kheiry; the young man returning from the Emirates loaded with broad dreams and a bag of dollars, finding himself facing a "flotation" storm devouring half his savings in one night. Between Hanaa's domineering ambition knowing no impossible, and Sherif's fractures before an economic reality grinding the middle class mercilessly, the novel takes us on a journey inside an old downtown building. There, where everyone shares a single waiting hall and a "budgeted" bathroom, striking human prototypes meet: from Ibrahim El-Darr struggling to survive, to Abu Taqiyya investing in human-biology crises, reaching office struggles reflecting survival's battle in a society whose features change at lightning speed. "A Tale Downtown" is no mere novel about love and marriage, but a mirror of.