Description
Book SynopsisAhmed Otared is a Cairene police officer and trained sniper. When the country is invaded and occupied by a force of foreign mercenaries he joins the underground resistance, embarking a new bloodthirsty career.As the violence he encounters and participates in intensifies, a terrifying reality, bubbling below surface of `normal’ life, is revealed to him, and he finds himself a fantasia of torture and torment, a hellscape from which there is no deliverance.This unflinching and grisly tale is made vivid through Mohammed Rabie’s brutally beautiful writing.
Trade Review"Gritty."--New York Times"More than just a portrait of a bleak future, this novel is of course a trenchant critique of modern Egypt. In Robin Moger's deft translation, Rabie's deployment of irony is skillfully rendered, a tool he uses to invert his country's contemporary characteristics in an attempt to underscore the absurdity of his narrative."--Culture Trip"Reading Otared is by and large like having a hand grasping the back of your head, forcing you to look through photos from hell."--Marcia Lynx Qualey, The National"Part early Ian McEwan, part Philip K. Dick, Mohammad Rabie's apocalyptic take on the Arab Spring in Egypt is an expressionist coupurgent, disturbing, and eminently readable."--Youssef Rakha, author of The Crocodiles and The Book of the Sultan's Seal"A book of perverse and stomach-curdling violence that would have been unthinkable before the 2011 revolution, which inspired it."--Times Literary Supplement"A fulfilling read that is honest in its depictions and provides a haunting look at the effect of war and at people who have seen too much of it."--Portland Book Review"The world Rabie paints reminds me very much of the insane landscape in Paul Auster's 'In the Country of Last Things, ' with its violence, its cruelty, and its bizarre customs. . . . No science fiction novel has gut punched me this hard for a long, long time. . . . Mohammad Rabie is an emerging force in Egyptian letters"--Sean McLachlan, Black Gate blog
