The buried : an archaeology of the Egyptian revolution / Peter Hessler.
BOOK
Add to my list
Permalink
Available copies
- 0 of 1 copy available at LARL/NWRL Consortium.
- 0 of 1 copy available at Lake Agassiz Regional Library. (Show preferred library)
Current holds
1 current hold with 1 total copy.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moorhead Public Library | 962.056 HES (Text) | 33500013063730 | New | Checked out | 06/20/2019 |
Record details
- ISBN: 9780525559566
- ISBN: 0525559566
- Physical Description: 463 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
- Publisher: New York : Penguin Press, 2019.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | Maps on lining papers. |
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 435-450) and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | The president -- The coup -- The president. |
| Summary, etc.: | "Drawn by an abiding fascination with Egypt's rich history and civilization, Peter Hessler moved with his wife and twin daughters to Cairo to explore a place that had a powerful hold over his imagination. He wanted to learn Arabic, explore Cairo's neighborhoods, research ancient history, and visit the legendary archeological digs. After years of covering China for The New Yorker, friends warned him it would be a much quieter place. But just before his arrival, the Arab Spring had reached Egypt and the country was in chaos. In the midst of the revolution, he attached himself to an important archeological dig at a site rich in royal tombs known in as al-Madfuna, or "The Buried." He and his wife set out to master Arabic, striking up an important friendship with their language instructor, a cynical political sophisticate named Rifaat. And a very different kind of friendship was formed with their garbage collector, an illiterate neighborhood character named Saaed, whose access to the trash of Cairo would be its own kind of archeological excavation. Along the way, he meets a family of Chinese small business owners who have cornered the nation's lingerie trade; their pragmatic view of the political crisis is a bracing counterpoint to the West's conventional wisdom. Through the lives of these and other ordinary people in a time of tragedy and heartache, and through connections between contemporary Egypt and its ancient past, Hessler creates an astonishing portrait of a country and its people. What emerges is a book of uncompromising intelligence and humanity--the story of a land in which a weak state has collapsed but its underlying society remains in many ways painfully the same."--Amazon.com. |
Reviews
Author Notes
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 April #2
Archaeology is the science of interpreting a distant past without being misled by one's familiar present. Hessler (Strange Stones, 2013) conveys the near-impossibility of this challenge as he recounts his five years of reporting on the crisis of Egypt's Arab Spring while studying the mysteries of the land's ancient ruins. Hessler's inability to transcend his cultural biases and his condescending reduction of Egyptians in amusing anecdotes is grating, yet he has the self-awareness to recognize the West's childlike romanticization of Egypt in himself and his Western colleagues. The similarity between archaeology and politics, both involving a series of revelations and obfuscations, is made clear by Hessler's juxtaposition of seemingly disparate events. After the ousting of Mubarak and the ascension of Morsi, a portrait of the former leader disappears and is replaced by one of the new leader. Nothing else seems to change. Likewise, an American archaeological team excavates a tomb, then reburies it for the sake of preservation, leaving no trace. Whether in modern Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood or the ancient Egypt of the pharaohs, all is cyclical. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.
Peter Hessler is a staff writer at the New Yorker, where he served as Beijing correspondent from 2000-2007 and Cairo correspondent from 2011-2016. He is also a contributing writer for National Geographic. He is the author of River Town, which won the Kiriyama Book Prize, Oracle Bones, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, Country Driving, and Strange Stones. He won the 2008 National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting, and he was named a MacArthur fellow in 2011.
