A quick to read but very interesting novel about two academics born on the same day in Cairo - one a historian and the other a literature teacher who is also the author of the novel. Both are writing a book called Spectres, the historian's focus is the massacre at Deir Yessin. It's kind of a little bit of everything - documentary, oral history, memoir and fiction and set against the history of Egypt from the forced labor of the canal building through decades of student activism and repression under Nassar and Sadat. It certainly seemed prophetic regarding last years events in Tahrir Square.

A lightbulb went off about half way through when I realized that Ashour is the wife of Mourid Barghouti whose memoir I Saw Ramallah made a huge impact when I read it last year.


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