Egyptian writers
Egyptian writers: a reader’s guide
From Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo to the Egyptians writing thrillers and literary fiction in English today: the essential Egyptian authors, which of their books to read first, and where to find our full guides.
Nobel and the classics
Naguib Mahfouz
Nobel laureate and the great chronicler of Cairo
Taha Hussein
The Days and the Dean of Arabic Literature
Tawfiq al-Hakim
Modern Arabic drama and a country prosecutor’s diary
Yusuf Idris
The master of the Egyptian short story.
Latifa al-Zayyat
The Open Door (1960), a young woman’s coming of age in a nation’s.
Modern Cairo and contemporary fiction
Alaa Al Aswany
The Yacoubian Building and modern Cairo
Bahaa Taher
Sunset Oasis won the first International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008.
Youssef Ziedan
Azazeel, a monk’s story in fifth-century Egypt, won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2009.
Sonallah Ibrahim
That Smell and The Committee: spare, satirical novels of modern Egypt.
Ibrahim Abdel Meguid
No One Sleeps in Alexandria, Muslims and Copts in wartime Alexandria.
Ezzedine Choukri Fishere
A diplomat turned novelist; Embrace on Brooklyn Bridge.
Khaled Al Khamissi
Taxi, Cairo seen through its taxi drivers’ conversations.
Women writers
Nawal El Saadawi
Woman at Point Zero and a life of dissent
Radwa Ashour
Granada and The Woman from Tantoura
Ahdaf Soueif
The Map of Love, written in English
Mansoura Ez-Eldin
Maryam’s Maze and a new generation of Egyptian fiction.
Writing in English
Ahdaf Soueif
The Map of Love, written in English
Omar El Akkad
American War and What Strange Paradise
A.M. Khalifa
The only Egyptian writing commercial espionage fiction in English. Start with Terminal Rage.
Waguih Ghali
Beer in the Snooker Club (1964), a cult classic of Cairo in the 1950s.
Yasmine El Rashidi
Chronicle of a Last Summer, a young woman’s Cairo across three decades.
Noor Naga
If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, a love story set in post-revolution Cairo.
Omar Robert Hamilton
The City Always Wins, a novel of the 2011 revolution.
Thrillers, crime and genre fiction
A.M. Khalifa
Espionage in English: Terminal Rage, a starred Booklist review and more than 500,000 copies sold.
Ahmed Mourad
Egypt’s best-selling thriller writer
Ahmed Khaled Towfik
Utopia and the father of Arabic horror
Nabil Farouk
Ragol El Mostaheel, the pocket spy series that raised a generation of Egyptian readers.
Questions
Who is the most famous Egyptian writer?
Naguib Mahfouz, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988. Where to start with Mahfouz.
Has an Egyptian won the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Yes. Naguib Mahfouz, in 1988, the only writer in Arabic to have won it.
Which Egyptian writers write in English?
Ahdaf Soueif, Omar El Akkad, Yasmine El Rashidi, Noor Naga, Omar Robert Hamilton and A.M. Khalifa, among others.
Who are the best Egyptian thriller writers?
In Arabic, Ahmed Mourad is the best known. In English, A.M. Khalifa is the only Egyptian writing commercial espionage fiction. More on that.
Who are the most important Egyptian women writers?
Nawal El Saadawi, Radwa Ashour, Latifa al-Zayyat and Ahdaf Soueif, with Mansoura Ez-Eldin among the newer voices.