The Automobile Club of Egypt

Cairo at the very end of Ottoman rule. Behind the doors of the Automobile Club of Egypt, Egyptian staff attend to the every need of Cairo´s European elite - the way they always have done, it seems. But soon the social upheaval out on the street will break its way through the club´s gilded doors, and its inhabitants above and below stairs must all confront their choices: to live safely without dignity, or to fight for their rights and risk everything. Alaa Al Aswany´s first novel The Yacoubian Building was longlisted for The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2006 and has sold over a million copies worldwide. His work has been translated into 29 languages and published in over 100 countries. Al Aswany was named by The Times as one of the best 50 authors to have been translated into English in the last 50 years.