The Cairo Diary

by Maxim Chattam

  —MAXIM CHATTAM

  Edgecombe, February 4, 2005

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  THE CAIRO DIARY. Copyright © 2005 by Maxim Chattam. Translation copyright © 2006 by Susan Dyson. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.minotaurbooks.com

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Chattam, Maxim, 1976–

  [Sang du temps. English]

  The Cairo diary / Maxim Chattam.

  p. cm.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36099-3

  ISBN-10: 0-312-36099-1

  I. Title.

  PQ2703.H388 S3613 2007

  843'.92—dc22 2007009101

  First published in France by Michel Lafon, June 2005.

  First U.S. Edition: June 2007

  eISBN 9781466861466

  First eBook edition: November 2013

  * Street

  * A red hat similar to the fez mostly worn by Muslim men

  † A local tourist guide and translator whose knowledge is often more linked to his address book than to his historical learning

  * A place for smoking hashish

  * The time of prayer, just before dusk—the Arab day begins at sunset, not at sunrise

  * A gigantic bazaar, famous in Cairo.

  * A pious foundation also known in Northern Africa under the name of habous

  * An old city that, with Fustat, formed the modern-day city of Cairo