Dissenters_Cover
2026 Nominated

The Dissenters

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ABOUT
THE BOOK

Amna, Nimo, Mouna – these are all names for a single Egyptian woman whose life has mirrored that of her country. After her death in 2015, her son, Nour, climbs to the attic of their house where he glimpses her in a series of ever more immersive visions. CCharged and renewed by these visions of a woman he has always known as Mouna, Nour begins a series of fevered letters to his sister. Hallucinatory, stylish, and erotic, The Dissenters is a transcendent portrait of a woman and an era that explodes our ideas of faith, gender roles, freedom, and political agency.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Youssef
Rakha

YOUSSEF RAKHA is an Egyptian author of fiction and nonfiction working in Arabic and English. He is the author of The Book of the Sultan’s Seal, The Crocodiles, and Paulo, which was long-listed for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and won the 2017 Sawiris Award.
YOUSSEF RAKHA is an Egyptian author of fiction and nonfiction working in Arabic and English. He is the author of The Book of the Sultan’s Seal, The Crocodiles, and Paulo, which was long-listed for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and won the 2017 Sawiris Award.
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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

It is a beautifully written, lyrical exploration of a Egyptian family’s history, told primarily through letters. Rakha addresses difficult themes (politics, repression, gender, intimacy) in an unflinching yet poetic manner. (Fingal Libraries)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
27/02/2025
Country
Egypt
Author
Publisher
Peninsula Press
Borrow this book from Libraries Ireland

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