Goubia: From the Memoirs of the Fish Market

About this book

Between the smell of iodine rising from Alexandria's shores, and the breath of "the fish market" that never leaves your clothes, a tale is born unlike the stories told in fancy salons. "Goubia" is no mere novel; it is the belated confessions of a man watching his city from the balcony of his luxury flat, fully aware that the money buying happiness always fails to buy "its permanence." Zizo (Abdel-Aziz Mohamed) takes us on a journey beginning at the bottom of society, where the threads of fate tangle between the alleys of the damned market and his secret memoirs holding between their folds secrets that, if revealed, "heads would fly for." Was Zizo merely a fish dreaming of breathing air? Or was he part of a "cesspool of memories" exploding to reveal the faces of strict teachers, power struggles, and contraband trades run under the cover of darkness. Between this work's pages the tone escalates from the mystery of memoirs hidden in a secret drawer to the inspiration of rising from poverty and orphanhood under the wing of "Master Mostafa." You will feel the chill of nights.