A review by jasonwith_y
Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany

4.0

I picked this book up from the BPL just due to the title and the fact that it was the author of The Yacoubian Building-- the book upon which an Arabic language movie I had seen in college was based. I was surprised how taken I was by the myriad Egyptian and American characters in post-9/11 Chicago. The disparate plot lines meet at the end in what was frankly a tragic ending that I hadn't seen coming. Despite being a translation, it was a pretty smooth read and kind of a guilty pleasure filled with sex, intrigue, and international politics.