Originally published 1992 | ||
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Zaat: The Tale of One Woman's Life in Egypt During the Last Fifty Years (ذات) is a novel by Sonallah Ibrahim. The book was originally published in 1992. The English translation by Anthony Calderbank was published by the American University in Cairo Press in 2001. Hosam Aboul-Ela of the University of Houston wrote in 2001 that it was Ibrahim's "most celebrated novel to date". An excerpt is within the anthology The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic edited by Denys Johnson-Davies.
Contents
Sarah Hahn of the The Middle East Journal wrote that the book was "[r]enowned for its black humor and ironic commentary on modern Egyptian life". It is about the life of Zaat, a woman from a lower middle class background. Zaat chronicles her relationships, the surrounding political climates, and her experiences. She lives through the governments of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak.
Writing style
Newspaper headlines from current events are interspersed with the story, taking up the even-numbered chapters while the story itself is in the odd-numbered chapters. Aboul-Ela wrote that these newspaper articles break up the novel's main story, include distinct characters and themes, and have the role of "further reinforcing [the story's] fragmentation, its alinear structure, and the sense that [Zaat] is caught in forces larger than herself." The original Arabic version has a publisher's note located before the text stating that the newspaper articles are meant to highlight the atmosphere of Egypt during events within the story, and that the inclusions are not intended to infringe copyrights or to endorse the accuracy of the stories. The English version does not include this note.
Characters
Television adaptation
In 2012 Misr International Films was producing a television series based on Zaat. Filming of scenes set at Ain Shams University in Cairo was scheduled to occur that year, but Muslim Brotherhood student members and some teachers at the school protested, stating that the 1970s era clothing worn by the actresses was indecent and would not allow filming unless the clothing was changed. Gaby Khoury, the head of the film company, stated that engineering department head Sherif Hammad "insisted that the filming should stop and that we would be reimbursed ... explaining that he was not able to guarantee the protection of the materials or the artists."