Author

Alaa Al Aswany

Alaa Al Aswany originally trained as a dentist and retains his own dental practice in Cairo. The Yacoubian Building
has sold over one million copies worldwide and was the bestselling
novel in the Arab world for over five years. His work has been
translated into more than thirty languages and published in over one
hundred countries. He speaks Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. Al
Aswany has received many awards internationally, including the Bashrahil
Award for the Arabic novel, the Kafavis Award from Greece, and the
Grinzane Cavour Award from Italy, and was named by The Times as
one of the fifty best authors to have been translated into English over
the last fifty years. In 2016, he was appointed a Chevalier de l'Ordre
des Arts et des Lettres of France