Taxi: (Arabic edition)

This book was well-written and extremely interesting. I know about current events in Egypt from the Arab Spring on, but this book takes place before all of that. I enjoyed reading about the state of things (the politics, the way of life, how the every day person felt) just prior to the revolution. It's a quick read and never dull. Translation is perfectly done.

Tired of reading about the Middle East through big, traumatic news stories? "Taxi" is a great portrait of contemporary Egyptian culture--on political and personal levels. It's simply narratives by taxi drivers (the ones lazy journalists usually take their man-on-the-street quotes from anyway!), and it explains a lot about the various frustrations of living in Cairo today.And if you've ever ridden in a Cairo taxi, you know the experience can be incredibly aggravating. Amazingly, this book makes the drivers sympathetic, though hardly saintly.My only small frustration with this book is that the translation is occasionally a tiny bit stilted, but in general it's a million times better than most books translated from Arabic.

If anyone wonders why Egypt toppled Mubarak, read this book. Cairo in all its beauty and ugliness is the backdrop to the Egyptian people, funny, sad, angry, hungry, oppressed, depressed, depraved and enraged at the conditions of living under the Mubarak regime.

This was not the Arabic edition! This book is in English. I bought it to practice my Arabic reading. I still want to read it anyways but its a bummer

This is a short stories book about his conversations with drivers , i loved it. It introduces you to Cairo and their indiosincracy.

I found the book entertaining and quite funny.. An interesting take on the pulse of the 'common man' in Cairo and very descriptive of the pre-spring political mood.

A facinating book. Well worth the read for anybody headed for Egypt or interested in Egypt and the Arab world. .It has a lot to say about the challenges we as a nation face in that part of the world. A wonderful account of what people really think, at least taxi drivers.

An excellent description of the egyptian society before the Arab Spring!