An old chocolate tin stuffed with discarded poems is the nostalgic portal to a woman's past in Empty Cages by Fatma Qandil, translated from the Arabic by Adam Talib. An astonishing first novel from the winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, Empty Cages follows the fortunes of a middle-class Egyptian family as recalled by Fatma, the youngest child, who is now in her 60s and, like the author, is an Egyptian poet living in Cairo.
The chocolates are long gone but the tin dislodges long-buried memories and emotions that loosen their painful grip when Fatma writes them down, including the humiliation of her father's public drunkenness and the secret incidents involving her much older neighbor. Her story, lit from within by unexpected humor, is filtered through sepia-toned reflections of parents and brothers undone by thwarted ambitions and "dramatic twists," while flashbacks to summers in Suez evoke a carefree existence before the 1967 Six-Day War.
As she navigates her past, Fatma reveals herself to be prone to falling in love with the wrong man and sabotaging her own future. Her mother was the sole constant amid Fatma's ruinous marriages, insincere relatives, and sibling betrayals. After her mother's death, fate steps in as Fatma's "accomplice," enabling her to discard the remnants of her previous life and pursue tranquility beyond the reach of familial ghosts.
An exceptional storyteller, Qandil exposes the faulty wiring at the heart of an ordinary Cairo family while offering readers a memorable immersion in the city's culture during the second half of the 20th century. --Shahina Piyarali