Egyptian novelist Alaa Al-Aswany reflects on Cairo as both a lived city and a literary subject, tracing how Cairo has shaped his work and political views. Speaking with intimacy and candor, he describes Cairo as a place of layered histories rather than a single, fixed reality, a city whose chaos and vitality mirror the lives of its inhabitants.
“When I talk about Cairo, it’s like talking about my mother,” Al-Aswany says. “The relation is very, very deep and very profound.” Raised in the Garden City neighborhood, he recalls a cosmopolitan Cairo marked by gardens, the French school and a dense mix of cultures—an urban world that has since been altered, but not erased, by time and politics.
The interview revisits the origins of The Yacoubian Building, his best-known novel, which grew out of his experience living and working in a downtown Cairo building saturated with memory. “This room is full of human history,” he recalls thinking as he watched an old house being demolished. “I can easily imagine that in this room there was a wedding night or a divorce negotiation or even somebody committed suicide.” For Al-Aswany, such spaces form a microcosm of Egyptian society, where “every place in Cairo…is full of human history.”
Al-Aswany also situates his writing within Egypt’s longer cultural tradition, pointing to the country’s early engagement with cinema, theater and the visual arts. At the same time, he speaks sharply about the present political climate, arguing that fear and repression have narrowed public life. “The freedom of speech was protected, but no more,” he says, describing his own banning from publishing and his subsequent life in exile in the United States.
Distance, he suggests, has altered his vision of the city he left behind. “When you are no more in the city, you probably have a better vision for the city, and you have a strong nostalgia,” he observes, joining a long line of writers who have written most powerfully about home from afar. Yet Cairo remains central to his sense of identity and hope. Recalling the 2011 uprising, he describes moments of solidarity and joy, including the day Hosni Mubarak stepped down: “People were hugging each other in the street…this is the most beautiful moment I ever lived in Cairo.”
The conversation ends on an uncertain note about Egypt’s future, marked by economic strain and political stagnation, but also on a belief in what Al-Aswany calls Cairo’s enduring “secret”: a deep, resilient identity shaped by centuries of history, coexistence and cultural continuity.
Alaa Al-Aswany was born in 1957 in Cairo, Egypt. Trained as a dentist, he is one of the Arab world’s most widely read contemporary writers. His novel The Yacoubian Building (2002) became an international bestseller and was adapted into a major film, helping to bring modern Egyptian literature to a global audience. Al-Aswany is also known for novels such as Chicago (2007) and The Automobile Club of Egypt (2013), as well as for his political essays and commentary advocating democracy and freedom of expression. His most recent novel The Trees Walk in Alexandria (2025) has received critical acclaim. Since 2018, Awaany has lived in exile in the United States.
Alaa al-Aswany was interviewed by Christian Lund in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September 2025.
Cameras: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Nanna Dahm
Music: Children of Aleppo by Paolo Maddaloni and Martin Robertson / Upright
Produced and edited by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2026
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