Alaa Al Aswany

Alaa Al Aswany (, ; born 26 May 1957) is an Egyptian writer, novelist, dentist and a founding member of the political movement Kefaya. He is based in Paris and New York, where he lives and teaches creative writing.

Early life and career Al-Aswany during his monthly seminar in the "Leadership and Management Development Center", 25 April 2013. Alaa Al Aswany was born on 26 May 1957 in Cairo. His mother, Zainab, came from an aristocratic family; her uncle was a Pasha and Minister of Education before the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. His father, Abbas Al Aswany, was from Aswan (in Lower Nubia) and was a lawyer and writer who "is remembered as being a captivating and charismatic speaker with a broad following and loyalty within a cross-section of the Egyptian revolutionary intelligentsia". Abbas Al Aswany wrote a regular back-page essay entitled "Aswaaniyat" in the Egyptian weekly magazine Rose al-Yūsuf. In 1972, he was "the recipient of the state award for literature". He speaks Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. He studied Spanish literature in Madrid.

Al Aswany married his first wife in his early twenties. She was a dentist and they had a son, Seif. They later divorced. When he was 37, he married Eman Taymoor and they had two daughters, May and Nada.

He wrote a weekly literary critique entitled "Parenthetically" in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Sha'ab, and then became responsible for the culture page in the same newspaper. He wrote a monthly political article in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Nasseri and a weekly article in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Dustour. He also wrote a weekly article in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk. Following the revolution, he wrote a weekly article in Al-Masry Al-Youm on Tuesdays. His articles have been published in leading international newspapers such as The New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian, The Independent, including Armenian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Castilian, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. In 2006, The Yacoubian Building was adapted into "the biggest budget movie ever produced in Egypt". The movie was screened at international film festivals and was a great success in Egypt. However, Al Aswany was banned from attending the premiere.

Chicago, a novel set in the city in which the author was educated, was published in January 2007 and his Automobile Club of Egypt was published in English in 2016.

Al Aswany's name has been included on the list of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World, issued by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan. He was number one in the Foreign Policy Top 100 Global Thinkers list 2011.

Al Aswany participated in the Blue Metropolis literary festival in Montreal, June 2008 and April 2010, and was featured in interviews with the CBC programme Writers and Company.

In January 2015, the Gingko Library published Democracy is the Answer: Egypt's Years of Revolution, a collection of newspaper columns written by Al Aswany for Al-Masry Al-Youm between 2011 and 2014.

In 2018, Al Aswany published a novel titled Jumhuriyat ka'an (جمهورية كأن, literally: The Republic of As-If; translated into English as The Republic of False Truths ), which takes place in the backdrop of the 2011 Revolution.

His latest novel, Ashgar Tamshi fi-alaskandaryia (Arabic: الأشجار تمشي في الأسكندرية, The Trees Walk in Alexandria) was published in 2024.

Political views Al Aswany was in Tahrir Square each of the 18 days before Mubarak fell from power. Shafik lost his temper under persistent grilling by the novelist and it was the first time for Egyptians to witness a ruler dressed down so severely by a civilian in public. Consequently, it is said that Shafik was fired by the SCAF. He compared then-elected president Morsi to deposed president Mubarak in terms of dictatorship and repression of freedoms.

In an interview with Robert Fisk in 2014, Al Aswany said "I think we must give the Sisi government a chance. People are terrorised", while acknowledging that Sisi is not a true democrat.

Since 2019, Al Aswany has been living in Paris and New York in self-exile after he was sued by the Egyptian government for "insulting the state".

In 2022, after exile and in the wake of publishing his new novel, Al Aswany stated in a CBC radio interview: "I'm quite sure the revolution will win and I believe the change has already happened ... the future is on our side."

Al Aswany remains critical of the Egyptian government through his online lectures on his YouTube channel. He often states that "Democracy is the solution". He is also critical of other Middle Eastern regimes. Following the Gaza war, Al Aswany was highly critical of the government of Israel, calling for Liberation of Palestine, and the liberation of all the Middle East from tyranny and occupation.

Al Aswany often draws comparisons between the periods of the Kingdom of Egypt and the Republic of Egypt, criticizing the 1952 Free Officers movement as the source of most of the social and economic troubles in contemporary Egypt.

Bibliography (in Arabic)

Novels 1990: Awrāq ʾIṣṣām ʾAbd il-ʾĀṭī (, The Papers of Essam Abdel Aaty) 2002: ʿImārat Yaʾqūbiyān (, The Yacoubian Building) 2007: Chicago 2013: Nādī il-sayyārāt (, The Automobile Club of Egypt) 2018: Jumhuriyat ka'an (, The Republic of False Truths) 2024: Ashgar Tamshi fi-alaskandaryia (Arabic: الأشجار تمشي في الأسكندرية, The Trees Walk in Alexandria)

Short stories 1990: Alladhī iqtarab wa raʾa (, "Who Approached and Saw") 1998: Jamʾiyat muntaẓirī il-zaʿīm (, "Waiting for a Leader") 2004: Nīrān sadīqa (, "Friendly Fire")

Articles 2010: Li mā dhā lā yathūr il-Miṣriyūn (, "Why Don't Egyptians Revolt?”) 2011: Hal nastaḥiqq il-dimuqrāṭiyya? (, "Do We Deserve Democracy?”) 2011: Miṣr ʿalā dikkat il-iḥṭiyāṭy (, "Egypt on the Reserve Bench") 2012: Hal akhṭaʾat il-thawra il-Miṣriyya? (, "Did the Egyptian Revolution Go Wrong?") 2014: Kayf naṣnaʾ il-diktātūr? (, "How do we make the Dictator?”) Since November 2013, Al Aswany has been writing a monthly opinion column for the International Herald Tribune/New York Times.

English translations

Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building, HarperPerennial, 2007 Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building, Fourth Estate, 2007 Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building, Humphrey Davies (translator), HarperPerennial, 2006 Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building, Humphrey Davies (translator), The American University in Cairo Press, 2004 Alaa Al Aswany, The Republic of False Truths, S. R. Fellowes (translator), 2021.

Awards 2005: Bashraheel Award for Arabic Novel, 2005: The International Cavafi Award 2006: The Great Novel Award from Toulon Festival 2007: The Culture Award from The Foundation of The Mediterranean 2007: Grinzane Cavour Award 2008: Bruno-Kriesky Award 2008: Friedrich Award 2010: University of Illinois Achievement Award 2011: Blue Metropolis Award for Arabic Literature 2012: Tiziano Terzani Literary Award 2012: Mediterranean Cultural Award 2012: Johann Philipp Palm Award 2016: Ordre des Arts et des Lettres