The Man who Lost his Shadow
First UK edition of a modern Egyptian classic
Author
Fathy Ghanem, translated by Desmond Stewart. Dustwrapper by Julian Willett.
Publisher
Chapman & Hall, London, 1966
Printing Details
First UK edition, hardback in dustwrapper. 20.5 × 14cm, 352pp.
This novel tells the story of Yusif Abdul Hamid, a young and ambitious Cairo journalist, through the eyes of four people in turn: Mabruka, the young peasant girl who marries Yusif's aging father while strongly attracted to Yusif; Samia, a minor actress, who Yusif lives with and almost marries but in the end rejects; Muhammad Nagi, the newspaper editor who then marries Samia and who is pushed out of his job by Yusif; and finally Yusif himself, editor-in-chief of the newspaper al-Ayyam, a stranger to himself, "someone I neither love nor hate."
Condition
A good copy. There is some tanning to the wrapper but the book is in strong readable condition.