Bar Lialinaبار ليالينا

Longlisted for the 2023 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Arab Booker), «Bar Lialina» by Egyptian writer Ahmed el-Fakharany.

In this satirical novel, protagonist Nuh Al-Rahimi – an acting extra – resorts to trickery to gain admittance to Bar Lialina, frequented by the cultural elite. He hopes that through emulating them, he will discover what makes them so intelligent, while he by contrast is an ignoramus with inferior creative ability. He disguises himself as a rich film producer, but when his ruse is exposed, the bar’s regular clients decide that he must be thrown out. When he refuses to leave, they decide to have some fun by cruelly deceiving him, making Nuh into a laughing stock to deter him from ever daring to return to the bar. However, twenty years later, Nuh decides to go back and seek revenge, exposing these intellectuals for what they really are. - (arabicfiction.org)

About the author
Ahmed El-Fakharany is an Egyptian novelist and journalist born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1981.