Egyptian-British author Nadia Wassef's gorgeous, entertaining memoir recounts the launching a modern bookstore, the first of its kind, in Egypt's chaotic capital of Cairo at the turn of the 21st century. With chapters corresponding to the different sections of the bookstore and its cafe, Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller celebrates the remarkable success of the venture while sharing with humble honesty and wry humor the personal and professional challenges it created for the author.
Named Diwan, an Arabic word for "meeting place," the bookstore embodies Wassef and her sister Hind's dream to establish a female-led literary hub in patriarchal Egyptian society, where culture had atrophied, illiteracy was common and book lovers had few options to satisfy their intellectual cravings. Along with their friend Nihal, the sisters envisioned Diwan as a person with a distinct personality and aspirations to bring people and ideas together. Diwan's beautifully designed shopping bags quickly gained iconic status and the store's contrasting shelf displays were intricately staged, allowing the books to participate "in lively conversation" with each other.
Wassef's exuberance at realizing her dream was tempered by the reality of Egyptian society's cultural aversion to women in power and the suffocating encroachment of governmental bureaucracies. A shipment of The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver placed Diwan directly in the crosshairs of Egypt's archaic censorship laws, and Wassef worked hard to convince the censorship bureau official--via her male lawyer--that The Naked Chef was not offensive to public morals.
Shelved in the Classics section of the bookstore, the Middle Eastern folktale collection One Hundred and One Nights came to represent Diwan's liberal, open-minded stance on access to culture. While the book was banned elsewhere, Diwan proudly carried a popular translation that disapproving customers felt contained too much sexual language and the exaltation of wine.
Wassef's debut brims with wistfully elegant musings on the consolation and inspiration offered by literature, and the power struggles of parenting two young daughters while serving at the helm of Diwan's expanding empire. She places Diwan's inauguration and evolution in the colorful context of Egypt's fluctuating social and political climate, the expansion of the bookstore and the variety of its offerings mirroring the shifting tastes of Cairo's reading public.
From a visionary who is passionate about the written word, Wassef's memoir is both an intimate reckoning with motherhood, marriage and feminism and a thoughtful meditation on Egyptian literary culture and history. --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer
Shelf Talker: An Egyptian British female entrepreneur recounts her remarkable adventure launching the first modern bookstore in Cairo, and its transformative impact on the city's cultural scene.