A Book Club is Born

Last night saw the opening session of Dar El Tanweer's book club, in partnership with Dr. Mohamed Aboul Ghar's own book club, which has been running for years. The gathering celebrated author Alaa El Aswani's new novel Nadi Al-Sayyaraat (the Automobile Club). Dr. Alaa talked about "the Place" as hero or main character; about doing novel research , familiarizing oneself with the historic period and facts of the era where the novel is set; and the process of novel writing. He quoted Isabel Allende as saying that, whereas a short story falls on her hear like an apple from a tree, a novel takes painstaking work and skill to polish. He estimates that the novella-writing is a much more challenging skill than novel-writing.

In attendance was Ibrahim El Mo'alem, CEO of publishing giant Dar el Shourouk and publisher of the daily by the same name. In response to a comment from a participant about he high price of his books, he explained that the publishing industry in Egypt suffers from a lack of effective government financial support, which in other countries keeps the prices of books down.

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