The Day the Leader was Killed

New York: Anchor Books, 2000. Later printing. Paperback. as New. 102pp. 8x5in. Spine colored in gold, green, and white 3rds. In the breathtakingly compact novel. Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz delves into the great generational themes featured in his epic Cairo Trilogy. The time is 1981. Anwar al-Sadat is president, and Infitah, Sadat's open-door economic policy, is wreaking havoc in the everyday lives of citizens. Set against this backdrop, The Day the Leader Was Killed relates the tale of a middle-class Cairene family. Rich with irony and infused with political undertones, the story is narrated alternately by the pious and mischievous family patriarch, Mahtashimi Zayed, his hapless grandson. The novel reaches its climax with the assassination of Sadat on October 6, 1981, an event around which the fictional plot is skillfully woven.