DESTINATION: EGYPT
Sunday, November 15th, 10AM to 11:30AM (We'll have tea + coffee!)
FREE to attend!
Postcard Bookshop | 81 SE Yamhill St, PDX 97214
Parking lot located in back, off of Water Ave
Our Word Travel Book Club meets every-other-month to read books from a common country. We pick the destination and you choose what book to read! When we gather, we’ll all be introduced to a broader survey of a country’s writing, and have the chance to explore connections and themes across books.
DESTINATION: EGYPT
As we return to Africa for our second literary visit to the continent, we'll move north to Egypt, a country with deep cultural ties to Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean. Egypt can invoke a 5,000 year-old literary tradition, as the originators of some of the very earliest written literature. From hieroglyphic mythology to the great Library of Alexandria to the al-Nahda flourishing of the 19th and 20th centuries, there is a long lineage for the Egyptian writer.
Like India, Egypt is also a former British colony that won independence in the 20th century and has been defining itself as a modern nation ever since. This is an unavoidable condition for the contemporary writer, even if they don't write in service of the state. How might a country's literature reflect an ancient heritage? How might that writing craft a modern identity? And how can writing respond to a new political moment in the wake of a revolution? This last question is particularly pressing, as writers participated in the protests of Tahrir Square and the Arab Spring, only to again face censorship and imprisonment as they have over decades of successive regimes.
Heading into this next book club, the store is stocked with memoirs, feminist stories, dystopian fiction, and Nobel Prize winners, but I'm excited to fill out the Egypt shelf with new finds over the next two months. I compile lists of recommendations each month — just follow the links below to see what we have on our shelves at the shop, or explore our longer list on Bookshop.org. But remember: you can read ANY book from our chosen country, so pick up whatever catches your attention.
Looking for suggestions of what to read? We've curated collections of great Egyptian books on our website, or on our Bookshop.org page.