WHAT ARE THE BEST BOOKS ON EGYPT?

Max Rodenbeck, The Economist's chief Middle East correspondent since 2000, recently wrote a special report on Egypt, "The long wait", in which he argues that after three decades of economic progress and political paralysis, change is in the air. He answers some questions about the best books on the subject (for The Economist online), conceding that "Mubarak’s Egypt is just not as inspiring as, say, Cleopatra’s, and the literature reflects this."

These are my favourite answers:

Egypt is full of memoirists and novelists. Which do you turn to for a good yarn about the country?

The most famous is Egypt’s Nobel prize-winning novelist Naguib Mahfouz, but I’ve found more insight into the country in the short stories of Yusuf Idris and Yahya Taher Abdallah, which have also been translated into English. For a more contemporary take on Egypt, Alaa al Aswany’s global bestseller "The Yacoubian Building" (American University in Cairo Press, 2004) is amusing, evocative and illuminating.

What was the last book you read for fun?

Stieg Larsson’s "Millennium Trilogy" (reviewed by The Economist here). Not a very original choice, but in a hot Cairo summer the cool and kinky Scandinavian setting is extra refreshing.