Khaled Al-Khamissi [ Germany ]

Khaled Al-Khamissi was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1962. He studied politics  at Cairo University and the Sorbonne in Paris. Al-Khamissi worked as a journalist for various Egyptian newspapers where he made a name for himself as a remarkably astute observer of social conditions. He was also active as a producer, director and scriptwriter of documentary and feature films.

His début novel »Taksi... hawadith al-mashawir« (2007, English: Taxi. Cabbie talk) quickly became a best seller in Egypt and the Arabic world. It has been translated into English, Italian, Greek, French and Spanish and will shortly be appearing in Polish. In some  60 episodes, Al-Khamissi lends his observant and occasionally investigative ear to Cairo’s  cab drivers. With more than 80,000 taxis, the drivers are ubiquitous, with a knowledge, second to none, of  the entire spectrum of Egyptian society. They report in occasionally lively, at times crude Egyptian dialect that is  always authentic, expressing  their views, hopes and cares; they give an authentic picture of the mood on the  ›Egyptian street‹, where there is a deep  disappointment resulting from the government’s  repressive politics that lead people to a sense of powerlessness. Yet, as Al-Kamissi points out in his introduction to the book, the political analyses of the taxi drivers often provide greater  insight than those of recognised political analysts. The dialogue begins where the taxi shifts from being a means of transportation to an uncensored space for communication – censored only at times by the author’s own occasional explicit self-censorship with his regrets , at not  being able to retell the best jokes or mention certain names for fear of reprisals.

These semi-documentary, semi-fictional  conversations, based on the author's experience, are skilfully condensed and framed by apposite comments or observations. This leads to the dialogue-rich ›shortest stories‹ with their gripping and  often surprising dramaturgy. These can either stand alone or be combined to present a mosaic-like picture of Egyptian society. At the same time they are an homage to the oft-denigrated ›street culture‹, documenting as they do the wit, wisdom and poetry of the cab drivers.

His second novel »Safinat nuh « (tr: Noah's Arc) gives a voice to Egyptian émigrés who have left their country to try their luck abroad. As in his first novel, Al-Khamissi shows himself here to be an incorruptible witness and provocative littérateur. Khaled Al-Khamissi lives and works in Cairo.

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