Yasser Abdellatif; trans. Robin Moger
The Law of Inheritance by Yasser Abdellatif, translated by Robin Moger, is a series of vignettes that tell the story of a young man growing up in Egypt in the 1990s. The snapshots include stories of his Nubian grandfather and the family’s relocation after their village was flooded by the Aswan Dam; recollections of his childhood and schooling; his involvement in the student riots at Cairo University in the 1990s; his pill-popping experimentation with hallucinogens; and his fledgling attempts at becoming a writer.
The fragmentary nature of the vignettes is reinforced by a lyrical prose that give it almost a dream-like quality. The movement is fluid. The vignettes move back and forth in time; characters appear, disappear, only to reappear later. Questions of belonging and identity permeate the atmosphere. Bouts of smoking and pill-popping with friends pepper the narrative as does the fate of family members and school friends. The student riots and violent reaction of the authorities is described in chaotic, almost surreal terms. The overall impression is of a series of snapshots revealing a people in transition, floundering to find a foothold and struggling to forge connections in a changing society.
Unfolding in poetic prose, these fragmentary sketches and memories, shifts in time, and the depiction of a generation adrift encapsulate the zeitgeist of Cairo as it experiences the dramatic changes of the 1990s.
Recommended.