BOOKS FROM EGYPTThe Queue
Tags:
Female author
Description:
"The Queue ... has drawn comparisons to Western classics like George Orwell’s 1984 and The Trial by Franz Kafka. It represents a new wave of dystopian and surrealist fiction from Middle Eastern writers who are grappling with the chaotic aftermath and stinging disappointments of the Arab Spring." -- The New York Times Winner of the English PEN Translation Award In a surreal, but familiar, vision of modern day Egypt, a centralized authority known as ‘the Gate’ has risen to power in the aftermath of the ‘Disgraceful Events,’ a failed popular uprising. Citizens are required to obtain permission from the Gate in order to take care of even the most basic of their daily affairs, yet the Gate never opens, and the queue in front of it grows longer. Citizens from all walks of life mix and wait in the sun: a revolutionary journalist, a sheikh, a poor woman concerned for her daughter’s health, and even the brother of a security officer killed in clashes with protestors. Among them is Yehia, a man who was shot during the Events and is waiting for permission from the Gate to remove a bullet that remains lodged in his pelvis. Yehia’s health steadily declines, yet at every turn, officials refuse to assist him, actively denying the very existence of the bullet. Ultimately it is Tarek, the principled doctor tending to Yehia’s case, who must decide whether to follow protocol as he has always done, or to disobey the law and risk his career to operate on Yehia and save his life. Written with dark, subtle humor, The Queue describes the sinister nature of authoritarianism, and illuminates the way that absolute authority manipulates information, mobilizes others in service to it, and fails to uphold the rights of even those faithful to it.
Reviews:
(3 years ago) |
19 Sep, 2022
This is a fantastic book, one of my Top 5 read in 2021. It's a satire inspired by the Arab Spring, told in a simplistic style. Don't let it fool you, things get a bit twisted by the end. It started out a little boring, but it's worth sticking it out until the end.
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(1 month ago) |
28 Aug, 2025
I enjoyed this well-written book about life under an authoritarian, bureaucratic government. It is a satire or a farce because lots of absurd and ridiculous things happened, but many of the totalitarian tactics described are only a little exaggerated from the absurd and ridiculous political reality in many countries (scapegoating, lying, denial, impossible bureaucratic hurdles...). So while it is satire, it also felt terrifyingly plausible and my experience was frequently of sorrow and distress for the suffering of the characters, and fear for the future.
After finishing: I just realised that the blue iris in the horus eye on the cover of the book is a surveillance camera.
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