Abstract

God Dies by the Nile is Saadawi’s attempt to square religion with a society in which women are respected as equals; Searching expresses the poignancy of loss and doubt with the hypnotic intensity of a remembered dream; while in The Circling Song, Saadawi pursues the conflicts of sex, class, gender and military violence deep into the psyche.

‘Nawal El Saadawi writes with directness and passion’
New York Times

‘The most influential feminist thinker in the Arab world over the past half-century.’
Financial Times

‘The leading spokeswoman on the status of women in the Arab world’
The Guardian

Praise for God Dies by the Nile

'A quietly formidable achievement; its understated evocation of tragedy and strength in the face of victimization make it a graceful classic'
Women's Review

‘Powerfully political.’
Poetry Nation Review

‘Nawal El Saadawi’s achievement is to lay bare the thin flesh and huge passions of her characters.’
West Indian Digest

Praise for Searching

‘Nawal El Saadawi once again presents a psychological drama that will take you into the depths of a woman’s despair. Intimate details and vivid descriptions fill this story of an ordinary person who ends up teetering over the abyss of insanity… This is a novel of Cairo with the languid Nile winding its way through a story of love, guilt, betrayal and redemption.’
Miriam Cooke, professor of modern Arabic literature, Duke University

‘Searching is an intense exploration of the state of mind of a young Egyptian woman who longs for both professional and personal meaning in her life, but finds herself isolated and adrift in a Kafkaesque world of senseless work. Saadawi creates a hellish vision of Cairo. Her protagonist finds herself utterly alone in a world dominated by casual, brutal patriarchy and a shadowy authoritarian state. This is a disturbing text that makes the reader feel trapped in a world that often feels like a particularly bad recurrent dream.’
Jane Plastow, professor of African theatre, Leeds University

Praise for The Circling Song

‘To read this book is like looking into a kaleidoscope; as each new element in the story is added, so a new configuration is formed.’
The Independent

‘Nawal El Saadawi’s technique is impressive: at once precise, controlled and hypnotic, even in translation. The style and meaning of the book are one. A song with no beginning and no end, the author tells its universal story.’
Everywoman

‘This novel is a powerful example of the kind of anger and desperation to which Arab women writers are beginning to give vent.’
Choice

‘Nawal El Saadawi is a legend in her own time. This is an ambitious work indeed.’
American Book Review

‘One of Saadawi’s most powerful books that we have had the privilege to read in English. Unusual, original and unexpected, it’s one of those very rare books which address you in many languages and can take you in many different directions at once.’
Spare Rib

Nawal El Saadawi is an internationally renowned writer, novelist and fighter for women’s rights both within Egypt and abroad. She holds honorary doctorates from, among others, the universities of York, Illinois at Chicago, St Andrews and Tromso as well as Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Her many prizes and awards include the Premi Internacional Catalunya in 2003, the Council of Europe North–South Prize in 2004, the Women of the Year Award (UK) in 2011, the Sean MacBride Peace Prize (Ireland) in 2012, and the French National Order of Merit in 2013. Her books have been translated into over forty languages worldwide. They are taught in universities across the world.