I finished Alaa al-Aswany, The Automobile Club of Egypt, yesterday. I enjoyed it very much. Unlike some reviewers I was intrigued by the series of beginnings, and applauded the lack of closure at the end. However, like some reviewers, I missed the energy of The Yacoubian Building and wonder how much of the spirit of the text has been lost in translation. (I notice Hickling's review in the Guardian (26 December 2015: bit.ly/1VLwcWy) lays the blame squarely at the feet of 'Russell Harris's deathly translation'.) This is a great pity for many reasons, not least because I hoped it would complement Naguib Mahfouz's magnificent Cairo Trilogy.
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