Manal Elkady

Secret Desires Manal Elkady

In this novel you are going to meet characters from different nationalities. From Egypt, Shawkat an owner of an Antique shop at Khan-Alkhalily the famous district in Egypt, and Nori a violist and gypsy.

Hong a Chinese woman who lives in Cairo and works as a designer relying mainly on her talent in arranging flowers . Ramzi an Egyptian American who joined the war in Iraq among USA army, he is the son of Nori and Geraldine a native American who is against the war in Iraq . Youssef an autistic child and son of Shawkat.

All these characters are revealing human pain, and universal oppression, reminding us of our humanity, in spite of different languages, nationalities and secret desires . This novel records also the circumstances which led to the Egyptian revolution on 25th January 2011, it predicted its occurrence, and also predicted the disaccord between different Egyptian parties which followed . The novel was published in Arabic in 2008 at the supreme council of culture in Egypt. The author decided to rewrite it in English to be read by English speaking people.