The Writer Next Door

Alaa Al Aswany and Maya Jaggi

The opening event of Free the Word! takes the festival theme, The Writer Next Door, as its starting point for extraordinary encounters between cultures and across imaginations. Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswany speaks out on translation, engaged literature and why being a dentist makes him a better writer. Al Aswany is best known for ‘The Yacoubian Building', an Arabic world bestseller set in modern-day Cairo that has been likened to Armistead Maupin's ‘Tales of the City'. Its explosive portrayal of Egyptian culture - reaching across social divides, breaking sexual taboos, exposing bribery and corruption - caused an unprecedented stir on publication in 2002. Alaa Al Aswany will be in conversation with Maya Jaggi, award-winning critic and leading voice on world literature for the British media.

‘The most emotionally compelling Egyptian novel published in English since Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy' The Independent

"The point of literature is to understand rather than to judge" Alaa Al Aswany