Unlock "Empty Cages": A Virtual Book discussion

Watch an engaging virtual conversation on "Empty Cages" by Fatma Qandil, the 2022 Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature. An urgent and raw confessional of memory and family and all that is lost and won in one woman's lifetime.

The event will feature award-winning translator Adam Talib, who brought the novel into English with nuance and depth, alongside Karam Youssef, publisher of the Arabic edition and founder of Al Kotob Khan publishing house. The discussion will be moderated by literary critic and editor Marcia Lynx Qualey, founder of ArabLit.

About "Empty Cages":

The discovery of an old tin of chocolates, its contents long ago devoured, marks the entry into this intimate story that reaches back through a lifetime of memories in search of self and home, with the relationship between mother and daughter at its core.

Fatma Qandil describes, in startling and immersive prose, growing up in a middle-class Egyptian family, the youngest child and witness to their declining fortunes. Spanning the 1960s to the present day, her happy childhood melts away to reveal the fecklessness of her selfish older brothers, her father’s addiction, her mother’s illness, and the violence and many deaths, both literal and figurative, that she endures.

In both celebration and suffering, and through triumph and disappointment, her voice is unflinching, revealing both a determination to speak the truth and a poetic sensitivity that is disarming. Recipient of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, this fictional debut marks the arrival of a stunning new voice.

"Empty Cages" is available worldwide through major bookstores and online book retailers. You can also order your copy through one of these links:

Egypt: bit.ly/EmptyCagesEG

UK: bit.ly/EmptyCagesUK

US: bit.ly/EmptyCagesUS

You can also purchase the Arabic edition اقفاص فارغة through Kotob Khan:
https://kotobkhan.com/publications/li...