Ce que je sais de toi

In the conservative Cairo of the 1980s, Tarek does what is expected of him: he follows his late father into medicine, takes over the family practice, marries, and settles into a comfortable, well-ordered life. Then he begins volunteering at a clinic in Moqattam, the impoverished "Garbage City" on the edge of Cairo, and meets Ali — a young man from the neighbourhood whose presence unsettles everything Tarek thought his life would be.

Their impossible love pulls Tarek away from the destiny that had been mapped out for him, and eventually into exile in Montreal. Told largely in an intimate second person, and narrated by a voice whose identity only becomes clear midway through, the novel moves between Egypt and Canada across four decades, tracing the long aftershocks of desire, secrecy, and departure through a single family.

Éric Chacour's acclaimed debut — winner of the Prix des libraires du Québec — is a tender, "olfactory," and quietly devastating novel about forbidden love, family, exile, and the selves we are and are not allowed to become.