Ihsan Abdel Kouddous: A Virtual Discussion

Watch a special virtual discussion, co-sponsored by Stanford University Press, featuring Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist and grandson of Ihsan Abdel Kouddous in conversation with Jonathan Smolin, translator of Abel Kouddous's novels and scholar of his life, work, and politics.

The discussion will be moderated by Gretchen McCullough, fiction writer, literary critic, and senior instructor at the American University in Cairo.

Celebrating the most recent of Abdel Kouddous's novels to be translated into English by Jonathan Smolin, "A Nose and Three Eyes", the event will also explore Jonathan Smolin’s latest book, "The Politics of Melodrama: The Cultural and Political Lives of Ihsan Abdel Kouddous and Gamal Abdel Nasser", published by Stanford University Press, as well as "I Do Not Sleep", previously published by AUC Press under its fiction imprint, Hoopoe.

Ihsan Abdel Kouddous (Author, 1919–1990) is one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and popular writers of Arabic fiction. Born in Cairo, Egypt, Abdel Kouddous graduated from law school in 1942 but left his law practice to pursue a long and successful career in journalism. He was an editor at the daily Al-Akhbar and the weekly Rose al-Yusuf and was editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram. The author of dozens of books, his controversial writings and political views landed him in jail more than once.

You can order your copy of “A Nose and Three Eyes” (Hoopoe Fiction, 2024) at major bookstores worldwide or online book retailers, or through any of those links:

North America: bit.ly/NoseThreeEyesNA

UK: bit.ly/NoseThreeEyesUK

Egypt: bit.ly/NoseThreeEyesEG

You can learn more about “The Politics of Melodrama” (Stanford University Press, 2024) through this link:
bit.ly/PoliticsMelodrama