AUNT SAFIYYA AND THE MONASTERY

Aunt Safiyya And The Monastery ($35.00, paper $12.50; June 1996; 116 pp.; 0-520-20074-8, paper 0-520-20075-6). The first English translation of a fine Egyptian novel, originally published in 1991, set during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and concerned with the fate of a young Muslim caught up in a blood feud and seeking sanctuary in a Coptic monastery. The rival cultures that he and his patient hosts embody are lucidly presented through a virtuosic weaving of information and drama whose characters—most notably the fugitive's painstakingly decent father and vengeful Aunt Safiyya—are both representative figures and vibrant flesh-and-blood human beings.