Alaa Al Aswany

Chicago is a novel by Egyptian author Alaa-Al-Aswany. Published in Arabic in 2007 and in an English translation in 2007. The locale of the Novel is University of Illinois at Chicago where the writer did his postgraduate studies. The novel is about the conflict between politics, sex and money.

This controversial bestselling novel in the Arab world reveals the political corruption, sexual repression, religious extremism, and modern hopes of Egypt today. All manner of flawed and fragile humanity reside in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor now slowly decaying in the smog and …