Skip to content

أصوات

أصوات

Contemporary LiteratureLiterary Fiction
Pages
123
Published
1972
Language
Arabic

Synopsis

A French woman, Simone, arrives in her Egyptian husband Hamed's rural village, sparking gossip and cultural clashes. As suspicion and jealousy fester, a tragic event unfolds, highlighting the complexities of cross-cultural understanding. This acclaimed 1972 novel explores deep societal divides and the consequences of prejudice.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

ComplexEmotionalReflectiveDark
Fish Out of WaterBetrayal

Genres

Contemporary Literature Literary Fiction

About the author

س
سليمان فياض

Egyptian novelist, short-story writer and scholar of the Arabic language, born in the village of Barhamtoush in the Sinbillawin district of Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt. He graduated from Al-Azhar University's Faculty of Arabic Language in 1956 and earned a teaching qualification there in 1959. He wrote for Egyptian radio and television from the 1950s, worked as a journalist and later as a linguistic expert on Arabic-language computing projects, and served as deputy director of Cairo's Teachers'...

Characters

Hamed El-BehairyProtagonist

Egyptian expatriate who made his fortune in Paris and returns after thirty years to his native village, bringing his French wife — a homecoming that exposes the gulf between the two cultures.

Simone (Voices)Protagonist

Hamed's French wife, a journalist to whom the village is exotic material for her writing; her presence and the village's suspicion of her set the tragedy in motion.

Ahmed El-BehairySupporting

Hamed's jealous younger brother, a village shopkeeper who flirts with Simone; one of the narrating voices whose resentment feeds the story's escalating conflict.

All characters in أصوات