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Chronicle of a Last Summer
Chronicle of a Last Summer: A Novel of Egypt | Yasmine El Rashidi
22 posts | 19 read | 75 to read
A young Egyptian woman chronicles her personal and political coming of age in this debut novel. Cairo, 1984. A blisteringly hot summer. A young girl in a sprawling family house. Her days pass quietly: listening to a mother's phone conversations, looking at the Nile from a bedroom window, watching the three state-sanctioned TV stations with the volume off, daydreaming about other lives. Underlying this claustrophobic routine is mystery and loss. Relatives mutter darkly about the newly-appointed President Mubarak. Everyone talks with melancholy about the past. People disappear overnight. Her own father has left, too--why, or to where, no one will say. We meet her across three decades, from youth to adulthood: As a six-year old absorbing the world around her, filled with questions she can't ask; as a college student and aspiring filmmaker pre-occupied with love, language, and the repression that surrounds her; and then later, in the turbulent aftermath of Mubarak's overthrow, as a writer exploring her own past. Reunited with her father, she wonders about the silences that have marked and shaped her life. At once a mapping of a city in transformation and a story about the shifting realities and fates of a single Egyptian family, Yasmine El Rashidi's Chronicle of a Last Summer traces the fine line between survival and complicity, exploring the conscience of a generation raised in silence.
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review
bookwrm526
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Mehso-so

This was my selection for reading a book during the season it is set in for the #popsugarreadingchallenge and while it was beautiful it was only so-so for me. Even though it is actually quite short it felt much longer - I might not have been in the right head space for a slow, contemplative novel.

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mrozzz
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Pickpick

Ah, divine. So lyrical in its simplicity. A girl in Egypt grows up with her eyes wide open, deftly observing her family. The days bleed together and the story seamlessly transitions as she ages, and she talks more, discusses her desire to pursue film-making. Politics divide and unrest peaks. Her banal descriptions of the day-to-day kept her (and me as a reader) grounded. A beautiful, quick read.

108 likes5 stack adds
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rachellayown
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Pickpick

A short but lovely literary novel about three different summers in Egypt. It's quiet and won't appeal to everyone, but I thought it was well done.

monalyisha I felt that way about Lucy Wood's "Weathering." ? Different season, same quiet vibe. 7y
rachellayown I'll have to check it out @monalyisha! Thanks for the recommendation. 7y
62 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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BookishFeminist
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Pickpick

A portrait of Egypt told in 3 parts: 1984, 2004, 2014. This short novel doesn't have much plot except a stream of conscious narrative of a girl becoming a woman at various points in Egypt's unstable political upheaval, incl its Revolution in 2011. Egypt is a character as we follow its devolution from her perspective close to revolutionaries. It strikes an uneasy chord w/similarities bw Egypt's instability & burgeoning disruption in the US. 🇪🇬

Tav I have read one book set in Egypt and it was brilliant: 7y
bookishbunny One of the best books I've read this year also deals with women in Egypt. It's about a woman in Egypt who is about to be executed and she tells her story both as a child and an adult regarding life as a woman and the options open to them (not many). You basically see 1950s -70s Egypt. 7y
135 likes21 stack adds3 comments
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StephanieY
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Pickpick

Day 3, book 3. Put this one on your list! Short diary-like read of a woman's experience of three Egyptian revolutions - as a girl, teen and then as an adult. The voice is 💯. #dogsoflitsy

10 likes2 stack adds
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StephanieY
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Books borrowed and bought from my library and my indie.

8 likes1 stack add
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BookishFeminist
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Errands done ✔️ progress made on a work project ✔️ time to relax & snuggle for a bit with a new read. 🤓

Looking toward to this book that follows a young girl and Egypt's social scape as she grows up with her family in Cairo.

#thebookishferrets

LeahBergen Nope. No. I can't. THE TEENY GLASSES. 😩😩😩 7y
BostonBookAddict Those glasses are adorable! 7y
Bookworm54 Oh my gosh those glasses! 😍 7y
See All 11 Comments
Suzze Ferret glasses! 7y
KDo27 🤓🤓🤓 7y
Dorianna Bookish ferret glasses! I'm dying. 😂🤓😍 7y
tricours Those actually look like her glasses! His? 7y
MrBook 😻 7y
tammysue He's precious!😂 Sounds like a perfect ending to a productive day🙌🏻🙌🏻 7y
LauraBeth Ferret glasses! 😂 7y
cathysaid I tried this one but couldn't get into it so I'm curious to see what you think. 7y
129 likes7 stack adds11 comments
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BooksFootballBeer
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I pick reading. Any book. No Star Wars. That is all.

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TieDyeDude
Mehso-so

A decent read. A lot of the family's story was never told, which makes sense since the main character never learns them, but I felt the story suffered. A lot of promise for a debut novel, though.

3 likes1 stack add
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amandaeyreward
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Next up...!

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amandaeyreward

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Floresj
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Pickpick

Short book about Cairo from 1984- 2014. The author uses 3 summers to tell the story of a family. It reminded me of a slow boil...the beginning is the set up for a good last chapter. Overall, good but maybe not great😊.

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Floresj
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Something tells me that I'll be using that quote (hopefully I'll keep it to myself during staff meetings) "common sense is not that common."

3 likes1 stack add
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JodiLynnS
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Something to consider about Egypt.

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JodiLynnS
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This book is small, but jam-packed with feeling!

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Dogearedcopy
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Pickpick

Elegant, almost elegiac prose paradoxically reflecting the disquietude of three summers of revolution: 1984, 1998, and 2014. This lit-fic novel reads like a memoir owing to its powerful, spare, and introspective language. (Author photograph by Brigitte Lacombe)

26 likes3 stack adds
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Dogearedcopy
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In the end, I bought the hard copy; and in the early twilight of this morning read the first section which is set in 1984. And now, my world is just a little bit bigger than it was s couple hours ago

marixa Looking forward to the review! More novels about Egypt, highly recommended, are the "Alexandria Quartet" by Lawrence Durrell, beginning with 8y
shawnmooney What a lovely hook of a comment! 8y
33 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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Dogearedcopy
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Sigh. The book was released on 28JUN; but I just got the ARC now, 3 weeks later... I'll pick up the finished product as an eBook; and start this either tonight or tomorrow :-/

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Bookbento
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Immersive and beautifully written, this book is like taking a trip to Cairo, without the airfare. #bookbento

MrBook Wow! What a gorgeous picture! 8y
70 likes21 stack adds1 comment
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BethFishReads
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Bailedbailed

I failed to listen to my own advice: it's usually best to stay away from author-read audios. This might be just fine in print, but I won't be able to to get the unvarying cadence of the narration out of head. I'm moving on.

Dogearedcopy Oh! Too bad! I was just looking at the ARC (print) thinking, "This could be great audio...": and so I had been holding off on the print :-/ 8y
Hooked_on_books I think the exception to that rule would be Bossypants, but then again I'd listen to Tiny Fey reading the phone book! 8y
BethFishReads @Hooked__on__books there are exceptions, but this isn't one of them 😕 8y
See All 7 Comments
LitHousewife Thanks for the advice. I'm finding author narrated non-fiction the better way to go. You'd have to be Neil Gaimon or Joshilyn Jackson for fiction. 8y
Lizpixie Have you tried the author-read The Exorcist audiobook? Scared the pants off me! 8y
readinginthedark That's so weird! Most of the author-read books I've listened to have been better than non-author reads. Steve Martin and Catherynne M. Valente, for example. 8y
BethFishReads @readinginthedark I've been listening to audios for decades, and although there are exceptions, my experience is that the vast majority of author-read books are not well done. See also @LitHousewife 's comment 8y
14 likes7 comments
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amazingmavis
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Reading a galley to prep for a review and having an adult beverage. #onbrand #readingatbars #booksandbooze