DNYUZ
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Television
    • Theater
    • Gaming
    • Sports
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
No Result
View All Result
DNYUZ
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Sonallah Ibrahim, Egyptian Novelist of Irony and Dissent, Dies at 88

August 21, 2025
in News
Sonallah Ibrahim, Egyptian Novelist of Irony and Dissent, Dies at 88
493
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Sonallah Ibrahim, an Egyptian novelist who chronicled with deadpan irony his country’s submission to dictatorship and materialism in an influential career spanning nearly six decades, died on Aug. 13 in Cairo. He was 88.

The Egyptian culture minister, Ahmed Fouad Hanno, announced his death, in a hospital. The state newspaper Al-Ahram said the cause was pneumonia.

Mr. Ibrahim shocked the Arab literary world with his short, singeing debut novel, “That Smell,” published in 1966. Many other books followed, but the tone was set by the first — it was censored, banned, circulated underground and not definitively published in complete, open form until 20 years later.

The stripped-down style of “That Smell” and its harsh depiction of a present without perspective were at odds with the ornate main currents of Arabic literature, as well as the self-confidence of the official Egyptian narrative, which was firm until the country’s shattering defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. Through one individual’s disabused journey across Cairo, Mr. Ibrahim portrayed the malaise of an entire society, a literary experiment that earned him a lasting place in his country’s cultural landscape.

“That Smell” portrays the anomie of a young man just released from prison, like Mr. Ibrahim himself, who had spent five years in the harsh jails of the nationalist dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser after he rounded up the country’s Communists on New Year’s Day 1959, even though he was supported by many of them, including Mr. Ibrahim himself. Mr. Ibrahim was released, along with other Communists, only as a good-will gesture to the Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, who had come to inspect the Kremlin-financed Aswan High Dam in 1964.

The narrator of “That Smell” tries to readjust to a mid-1960s Cairo he hasn’t seen in years. It doesn’t go well.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

The post Sonallah Ibrahim, Egyptian Novelist of Irony and Dissent, Dies at 88 appeared first on New York Times.

Share197Tweet123Share
CNN analyst says Gavin Newsom’s social media strategy is working because Dems want a ‘fighter’
News

CNN analyst says Gavin Newsom’s social media strategy is working because Dems want a ‘fighter’

by TheBlaze
August 21, 2025

While many on the right are ridiculing Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s strategy on social media, there are signs that ...

Read more
News

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s rBio uses virtual cells to train AI, bypassing lab work

August 21, 2025
Entertainment

Millie Bobby Brown & Husband Jake Bongiovi Adopt Baby Girl

August 21, 2025
News

Scouted: Score 15% Off on Pvolve’s Jennifer Aniston-Loved Home Workout Equipment Right Now

August 21, 2025
Europe

‘America First’ Does Not Mean ‘America Everywhere’

August 21, 2025

Why does Mark Zuckerberg want our kids to use chatbots? And other unanswered questions.

August 21, 2025
Judges Detail Horrors They’ve Experienced Since Ruling Against Trump

Here’s One Smithsonian Painting the White House Wants to Censor

August 21, 2025
A California Resident Tests Positive for Plague. What to Know About the Disease

A California Resident Tests Positive for Plague. What to Know About the Disease

August 21, 2025

Copyright © 2025.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Gaming
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Sports
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel

Copyright © 2025.