Alaa Al Aswany's second novel, The Yacoubian Building (2002), was the best-selling novel in the Arab world for five years. Set around the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the book managed the dual feat of tracking the lives of a range of residents of the eponymous Cairo tower block and exposing the repression and corruption that mired Egyptian society after the revolution of 1952.
In his latest novel, The Automobile Club of Egypt, Al Aswany goes further back to explore the post-war discontent that lit the touchpaper that fired the revolution. Once again, the subject of his book's title doubles as a microcosm of Egyptian society, only this time his larger picture isn't the iniquities of Hosni Mubarak's regime but the injustices suffered under both King Farouk's reign and the British occupation.
At the heart of this sprawling novel is the Gaafar family. After sliding into penury, former landowner Abd El Aziz moves his wife and four children from Upper Egypt to Cairo and starts work as a lowly storeroom assistant at the distinguished Automobile Club. As its members include the decadent young king, its staff is supervised (and subjugated) by his tyrannical Nubian chamberlain Alku. When Abd El Aziz falls foul of Alku he is beaten and later dies – not only from his wounds but from humiliation.
Al Aswany wrong-foots his reader by killing off early what appeared to be his protagonist. However, he spends subsequent chapters minting new characters and following their various exploits, until we realise that this novel, like The Yacoubian Building, is about a variety of individuals and from all walks of life. Kamel is the closest we get to a hero. He replaces his father at the Club but also finds time for his law studies and illicit extracurricular activity in the form of underground revolutionary politics.
Meanwhile, Kamel’s two brothers pursue wildly divergent goals. Headstrong Said tries to exert authority at home, while away from it he is undone by his obsession for neighbour Fayeqa. Reckless and slow-witted Mahmud and his friend Fawzy progress from troublesome teenagers to low-grade playboys who devise a scheme to sleep with older women for a price. And then there are the women in the family who, though frequently bowed, refuse to be broken. On learning that the Automobile Club pays a pension only to Europeans, not Egyptians, Ruqayya, Abd El Aziz’s widow, fights for her rights against its obdurate managing director James Wright. Her equally defiant daughter Saleha must do battle against teachers who exclude her from school and, later, an abusive husband.
But to break down the Gaafar family and enumerate their trials and errors, agendas and ambitions, is only to scratch the surface of Aswany’s rich, lurid, polyphonic novel. After a playful metafictional opener in which Al Aswany is visited by his characters, followed by a chapter on Karl Benz, inventor of the world’s first automobile, we are taken from families and neighbours to the king and his palace entourage; from the dens of would-be revolutionaries to the Club and its beleaguered and degraded staff.
The sheer scale, pace and pulsing vitality of the novel puts us in mind of that other first-class storyteller Dickens. There is delicious villainy in the shape of Alku and Wright (the latter a dyed-in-the-wool racist overlord who believes Britain is making a huge sacrifice to “bring civilisation to the barbarians”). There is gutsy, ribald humour involving marital slanging matches, bodily functions and a disastrous circumcision. Kamel’s activism and eventual arrest and imprisonment prove thrilling, and Aswany cranks up the suspense as a compromised king resorts to desperate measures to flush out spies and saboteurs.
Where Al Aswany differs from Dickens is in his consistent portrayal of savvy and formidable women. Complementing Ruqayya and Saleha is their outspoken and vulgar-talking neighbour Aisha; feisty Odette, who turns out to be more than Wright’s mistress; and Mitsy, Wright’s daughter, who highlights and abhors her father’s hypocrisy, mesmerises Kamel and neatly sidesteps the advances of the lascivious king.
One quibble is that the book could have benefited from a glossary to decode the smattering of italicised terms. Otherwise, thanks to a superb translation by Russell Harris, The Automobile Club of Egypt reads perfectly as a stirring, rollicking account of a country on the cusp of upheaval.
This book is available on Amazon.
Malcolm Forbes is a freelance writer based in Edinburgh.
thereview@thenational.ae
THE BIO:
Sabri Razouk, 74
Athlete and fitness trainer
Married, father of six
Favourite exercise: Bench press
Must-eat weekly meal: Steak with beans, carrots, broccoli, crust and corn
Power drink: A glass of yoghurt
Role model: Any good man
In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
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Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Essentials
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Malaysia Airlines all fly direct from the UAE to Kuala Lumpur and on to Penang from about Dh2,300 return, including taxes.
Where to stay
In Kuala Lumpur, Element is a recently opened, futuristic hotel high up in a Norman Foster-designed skyscraper. Rooms cost from Dh400 per night, including taxes. Hotel Stripes, also in KL, is a great value design hotel, with an infinity rooftop pool. Rooms cost from Dh310, including taxes.
In Penang, Ren i Tang is a boutique b&b in what was once an ancient Chinese Medicine Hall in the centre of Little India. Rooms cost from Dh220, including taxes.
23 Love Lane in Penang is a luxury boutique heritage hotel in a converted mansion, with private tropical gardens. Rooms cost from Dh400, including taxes.
In Langkawi, Temple Tree is a unique architectural villa hotel consisting of antique houses from all across Malaysia. Rooms cost from Dh350, including taxes.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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