Gothic Night | Mansoura Ez Eldin | Granta Magazine

Gothic Night

Mansoura Ez Eldin

Translated by Wiam El-Tamami

‘He wrote: they called it the city of eternal sun. Its sun set only after the last inhabitant slept, and rose before the first got up. They were all deprived of the night. They were not even aware of its existence.’

Mansoura Ez Eldin

Egyptian novelist and journalist Mansoura Ez Eldin was born in Delta Egypt in 1976. She studied journalism at the Faculty of Media, Cairo University and has since published short stories in various newspapers and magazines: she published her first collection of short stories, Shaken Light, in 2001. This was followed by two novels, Maryam's Maze in 2004 and Beyond Paradise in 2009. Her work has been translated into a number of languages, including an English translation of Maryam's Maze by the American University in Cairo (AUC) Press. This year, she was selected for the Beirut39, as one of the 39 best Arab authors below the age of 40. Her second novel Wara’a al- Fardoos (Beyond Paradise) was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the Arabic Booker) 2010. She was also a participant of the inaugural nadwa (writers’ workshop) held by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in Abu Dhabi in 2009 and was a mentor at the second nadwa in October 2010.

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Translated by Wiam El-Tamami

Wiam El-Tamami is a writer, translator and editor. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Granta, Freeman’s, Social Movement Studies, Jadaliyya, Banipal, Ploughshares Solos and Craft. She won the 2011 Harvill Secker Translation Prize and was a finalist for the 2023 Disquiet Prize.

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