Traces of Enayat
by Iman Mersal, translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger
(And Other Stories, ISBN 9781913505721)
On 3 January 1963 the Egyptian writer Enayat al-Zayyat took her own life at the age of 26. Her only completed novel, Love and Silence, was published posthumously four years later, arousing interest among the Cairo intelligentsia as rumours circulated that Enayat’s family had destroyed the author’s journals and unpublished stories. The years passed and Enayat’s name surfaced only occasionally as a footnote in articles on Egyptian women writers. Then, in 1993, the poet and academic Iman Mersal bought a copy of Love and Silence on a whim, sparking an obsession with its author that would result in this book.
