If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English

Written by Noor Naga

Narrated by Noor Naga and Amin El Gamal

Winner of the Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize, a lush experimental novel about love as a weapon of empire.

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, an Egyptian American woman and a man from the village of Shobrakheit meet at a café in Cairo. He was a photographer of the revolution, but now finds himself unemployed and addicted to cocaine, living in a rooftop shack. She is a nostalgic daughter of immigrants “returning” to a country she’s never been to before, teaching English and living in a light-filled flat with balconies on all sides. They fall in love and he moves in. But soon their desire?for one another, for the selves they want to become through the other?takes a violent turn that neither of them expected.

A dark romance exposing the gaps in American identity politics, especially when exported overseas, If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English is at once ravishing and wry, scathing and tender. Told in alternating perspectives, Noor Naga’s experimental debut examines the ethics of fetishizing the homeland and punishing the beloved . . . and vice versa. In our globalized twenty-first-century world, what are the new faces (and races) of empire? When the revolution fails, how long can someone survive the disappointment? Who suffers and, more crucially, who gets to tell about it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705058589

Reviews for If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English

[Magda Genena · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Boring and meaningless I had bigger expectations for it , I wish the author better luck next time

[pxjxn4mvqg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I don't know how I feel about this book.
I didn't hate it nor did I love it, it was a good read I loved Part 3 a lot because it closed (concluded) the book very well.

[Anam Azam · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

What on earth is this book about? One of the most confusing, utter nonsense stuff on post revolution time.