Alaa el aswany biography of william

BORN: 1957, Egypt

NATIONALITY: Egyptian

GENRE: Fiction

MAJOR WORKS:
The Yacoubian Building (2002)
Chicago (2007)

Overview

Alaa al Aswany is a contemporary Egyptian writer whose best-selling books use social realism to take an unflinching look at the problems of modern Egypt. Al Aswany also achieved recognition as one of the founders of Kefaya, a political coalition aimed at opposing the presidency of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.

Works in Biographical and Historical Context

A Dentist Turned Writer Al Aswany was born May 26, 1957, in Cairo, Egypt, during the sixteen-year rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt's second president. He was trained as a dentist in both Egypt and Chicago. Al Aswany opened a dental clinic in the Yacoubian Building, the setting for his best-selling novel, before turning to writing. His novel The Yacoubian Building uses the building itself, as well as the intertwining stories of its fictional tenants, to depict the politic Biography of william shakespeare.