ILS ONT FAIT L'EGYPTE MODERNE

The “Arab spring” of 2011 proved to the world, with the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, that the Egyptians were not a people resigned to their fate. Instead of a country made up solely of sand, temples and pyramids, we find ourselves today faced with a modern, urban and courageous society.

From the French “civilizing” expedition carried out by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 to the election of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in 2014, the reader discovers along the way a country certainly plagued by countless political crises, but whose national sentiment and cultural genius are constantly asserting themselves.

In his usual style – fluid and hard-hitting – Robert Solé pays tribute to the leaders, but also to the artists and engaged citizens. The spirit of national cohesion inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the feminism developed by Hoda Chaarawi, the Western influences brought by Oum Kalsoum to traditional Egyptian music, or the free education introduced by Taha Hussein represent only a brief sample of all the contributions made by the eminent personalities who have each, in their own way, made the Egypt of today.

Born in Cairo, a long-time journalist with the newspaper Le Monde and a columnist for the magazine 1 since 2014, ROBERT SOLÉ has devoted numerous essays to his country of origin, including L'Égypte, passion française (Egypt, French Passion, Seuil, 1997) and Dictionnaire amoureux de l'Égypte (The Egypt Lover's Dictionary, Perrin, 2001). Hailed unanimously by critics, his Sadate (Sadat, Perrin, 2013) received the Biography Prize of the city of Hossegor. Robert Solé is also the author of Hôtel Mahrajane, published by Seuil in 2015.