Author : Reem Bassiouney
Publisher : Syracuse University Press
ISBN 13 : 0815610319
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (156 download)
Book Synopsis The Pistachio Seller by : Reem Bassiouney
Download or read book The Pistachio Seller written by Reem Bassiouney and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-29 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “It was Saturday. I remember. And while he was standing on a step ladder in the hall, changing a light bulb in the faint light coming through the window, I decided to love him.” So begins this wonderfully exuberant novel of quixotic adolescent longing and the enduring search for self. Set in middle class urban Egypt, the story chronicles young Wafaa’s struggle to come to terms with her own sexuality and her romantic infatuation with her cousin Ashraf, a spoiled and confident young Egyptian who was educated in England. Ashraf’s worldliness and carefree attitudes stand in sharp contrast to Wafaa’s provincial Islamic piousness. As both mature they find outside events encroaching upon their sheltered lives, forcing each to confront challenges to their youthful ideologies. Ashraf is chastened by an economic turnaround that takes him to the United States as an impoverished immigrant, and Wafaa begins to question her rigid fundamentalist beliefs that seem increasingly inadequate to make sense of the complex world around her. Reem Bassiouney effortlessly captures the voices of her characters, bringing them to life and allowing the reader to be fully immersed in their lives as they unfold in moving, often funny, and eventually triumphant ways. The Pistachio Seller introduces Bassiouney’s work to an English audience for the first time.