Books by Humphrey Davies
Humphrey Davies is one of the foremost contemporary Arabic-English literary translators, and has translated a wide variety of Arabic works, dating from the Ottoman period to the present day. He has lived in Cairo for the past 35 years. He is a two-time winner of the Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
The Yacoubian Building
by Alaa Al Aswany & Humphrey Davies
The Yacoubian Builiding is celebrated, possibly even notorious, for being such a bestseller - originally in Egypt and the Arab world and subsequently in the West, in English and in many other languages. It’s beautifully written, it’s incredibly readable, it’s often very funny and I suspect it will go on being read for many years as a kind of portrait of Egypt on the eve of the events that are taking place now.
On Being Abbas El Abd
by Ahmed Alaidy & Humphrey Davies
This is a wickedly complex tale. People debate what actually takes place in the book. It’s about a terminally grumpy twenty-something negotiating Cairo’s shopping malls and high-rises. The book as a whole reflects a culture that will be familiar to anybody in Egypt, who sits, as so much of Egypt does, at that meeting point between global culture -- of the internet and the cellphone and so on -- and Egyptian street life, the general craziness (and in the case of this book the literal craziness) of Cairo.
Interviews with Humphrey Davies
Best Contemporary Egyptian Literature, recommended by Humphrey Davies
One of the leading translators of contemporary Egyptian literature, Humphrey Davies, gives us his top choices.
Interviews where books by Humphrey Davies were recommended
Best Contemporary Egyptian Literature, recommended by Humphrey Davies
One of the leading translators of contemporary Egyptian literature, Humphrey Davies, gives us his top choices.
