Omran turned away from the lie, out to sea. “What if the boat doesn’t come?” His tone said he hoped it wouldn’t. They could go back to Cairo and make some kind of life. Couldn’t they? Wasn’t it possible? “What if the fisherman just . . . well, you know. Took our money.”
Dalia found it hard to be leery and desperate at the same time. She’d chosen, early on in the process, to ignore all feelings of doubt. Even after the man on the stairs said he’d attempted the same journey and had lost everything. Even after he’d written the smuggler’s number—“To be rid of it,” he’d said as if scribbling the digits would cleanse them from his memory—on the back of a leaflet that must’ve been distributed by protesters. A foreboding message had been on the front side: The martyr, followed by an illegible name, is dead! After calling the number a dozen times and receiving no answer, she’d tried again the next day with more luck, which convinced Dalia that her original strategy—to ignore the sinking feeling—was actually the right choice.
“What do you want?” the trafficker had said. Dalia had only gotten partway through her request before the smuggler, disinterested in her personal circumstances, said the cost of the journey was $2,000 per head. As if she and Omran were just cattle. The cost, he’d said, was non-negotiable. The cost wouldn’t be refunded under any circumstance. The smuggler had been clear on that point. He wouldn’t be held responsible for the weather, the coast guard, or even the condition of the boat. He’d said he was just a man. The operation was another entity. If these provisions weren’t acceptable, then passage wasn’t for sale. “You can try to swim if you want. Or walk, but it’s longer. Go to Israel. Then Lebanon, if you make it that far. Keep going around the sea until you get where you’re trying to go.” It was a shrewd way to conduct business. Dalia had practically begged him to take her money.
“The boat will come,” said Dalia. “I know it will.”
Omran looked inland but Dalia, a stalwart, faced the water. The clouds in the distance illuminated. Dark gray turned bright white. A flash of lightning? Or a figment of her imagination?
“Maybe we should—” started Omran.
Dalia lifted her finger to her lips. Hearing a clap of thunder from so far away required total silence. That silence yet eluded her. She heard Omran breathing unsteadily. She heard her own pulse. It was strangely languid. Lub-dub, lub-dub. Finally she heard an engine sputtering—and there in the dark was a boat.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This novel was supported by a Fulbright Program grant sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State and administered by the Institute of International Education. A debt of gratitude is also owed to the Binational Fulbright Commission in Egypt.
Many thanks to Emily Forland, Daniel Loedel, Rosie Mahorter, and Dan Cuddy. Thanks also to the friends and advisers who read early drafts. To Michael Byers, Kirsten Valdez Quade, Renée Zuckerbrot, Kate Osterloh, and the many fiction writers I came to know and trust during my time at the Helen Zell Writers’ Program.
Additional debts are owed to the abundant works of both Jalal al-Din Rumi and Hafez of Shiraz; to Naguib Mahfouz’s The Harafish; and to Alaa Al-Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building. Also to their generous and masterful translators.
Finally, and most importantly, thanks are due to Erica and Ruby. Love to you both.
A Scribner Reading Group Guide
Live from Cairo
Ian Bassingthwaighte
This reading group guide for Live from Cairo includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Introduction
Live from Cairo is the exuberant, dazzling story of Dalia, a strong-willed Iraqi refugee who finds herself trapped in Egypt after her petition to resettle in America with her husband, Omran, is denied; Charlie, her foolhardy attorney, whose frustration with the legal bureaucracy and complicated feelings for Dalia lead him to forge a not entirely legal plan to get her out; Aos, Charlie’s fastidious translator and only friend, who spends his days trying to help people through the system and his nights protesting in Tahrir Square; and Hana, a young and disenchanted Iraqi-American resettlement officer. When Hana is assigned to Dalia’s case, she must decide whether to treat her plight as merely one more piece of paperwork or as a full-blooded human crisis. As these individuals come together, a plot is formed to help Dalia. But soon laws are broken, friendships and marriages are tested, and lives are risked—all in an effort to protect one person from the dangerous sweep of an unjust world.
Topics and Questions for Discussion
1. One of the first things we learn about Hana is that her father died in a 1980 bombing in Iraq, forcing her pregnant mother to flee to America. Why do you think readers are given this information so early on? How important is Hana’s family history? How would the story be different without Hana’s past?
2. During her interview at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Hana responds to Dalia’s initial statement by saying “That’s what happened to your country. I’m asking what happened to you” (page 20). In what way are characters defined by their countries? How is identity embedded in location and nationality?
3. What was your reaction to Dalia’s testimony (pages 59–67)? How did you feel when Charlie responded by saying “please tell me there’s more?”
4. What role does shame play in the novel? How are the characters differently influenced by shame? What about guilt?
5. How does Mustafa, Hana’s cab driver, enrich your understanding of life in Cairo? What do we learn from him that we don’t from other characters?
6. During a phone call with her mother, Hana asks if “a lifetime of forced isolation and poverty” is “really less dramatic than death” (page 78). How would you respond? Hana also wonders whether she has a right to her mother’s narrative. What does she mean?
7. After receiving the rejection notice for Dalia’s petition, Charlie tells her husband, Omran, not to come back to Egypt. He is worried that Omran and Dalia would “discover that love wasn’t something they could eat or live inside” (page 101). Where, then, do you think love should rank on a list of priorities?
8. Faisal and his son spoke only Arabic to each other, and it made strangers so nervous they would often say, “We speak English in this country” (page 119). How did these statements impact Faisal and his son? Discuss the power of this sentiment and its presence in the United States.
9. On page 128, Charlie says “Subversion is the only way to even the odds when you have no money and no power.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
10. Is it ethical for Charlie to make Hana feel responsible for the death of a young man in order to convince her to provide an illegal yellow card? To what lengths would you go to protect the people you love?
11. How does this book portray insiders versus outsiders?
12. On pages 155–56, Hana reflects on a sentence by her favorite Egyptian writer: “In the passionate dark of dawn, on the path between death and life, within view of the watchful stars and within earshot of the beautiful, obscure anthems, a voice told of the trials and joys promised to our alley.” Why do you think this passage resonates with her so much?
13. Discuss what you would have done in Charlie’s, Dalia’s, Omran’s, and Hana’s positions. What would you have done differently? How difficult would your decisions be?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. As mentioned in the novel, Naguib Mahfouz is a renowned Egyptian writer. Expand your knowledge of Egyptian literature by reading some of his work.
2. Live from Cairo is set in Cairo during the turbulent aftermath of the January 25 Revolution. Research the recent events in Egypt and the ousting of President Mubarak. How does the political landscape as described in news compare to that o
f the novel?
3. Research traditional Egyptian recipes and have members of your book club bring different dishes for everyone to try.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
IAN BASSINGTHWAIGHTE was a Fulbright grantee in Egypt in 2009, where he worked in a legal aid office that served refugees from Iraq, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa. He has been honored with Hopwood Awards for both novel writing and short fiction. His work has appeared in Esquire, National Geographic, the Chicago Tribune, The Sun, Tin House, The Rumpus, and many other publications.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
SimonandSchuster.com
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Ian-Bassingthwaighte
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Scribner hardcover edition July 2017
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