ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’ve relied on several sources to bolster both my memory and imagination: the Twitter timelines of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Sarah Carr, Mostafa Hussein, Mona Seif, Salma Said, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Bassem Sabry, Nazly Hussein, Hany Rasmy, Hossam Bahgat, Heba Morayef, Rasha Azb, Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, Leil-Zahra Mortada, and Amro Ali are just some among many; the journalism of the old Egypt Independent and its reincarnation, Mada Masr, Jadaliyya, The Arabist, Jack Shenker, Khaled Fahmy, Ahmed Shokr, Mona El-Ghobashy, Evan Hill, David Kirkpatrick, Louisa Loveluck, and Robert Mackey; the photographs of Mosa’ab Elshamy; the archives of the newspapers Al-Ahram and Al-Shorouk. I referred to and quoted from the testimonies, evidence, and data collected by Wiki Thawra, Opantish, EIPR, Human Rights Watch, We Won’t Forget Them, and Mosireen. Where I have used specific testimonies, I hope that the victims of the state’s crimes will feel I have been respectful.
Finally, the writings of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, my cousin, to whom this book is dedicated, are a crutch on which I—and many others—regularly lean. Those writings have cost him his freedom.
THANKS
There is a large group of people without whom this book would not exist. My family, friends, and colleagues in Cairo and, in particular, those who came together to make the Mosireen Collective. Thank you to Lina Attalah for creating Mada Masr and the space for so many of us to start writing; to Mariam Said for that first essential breath of oxygen; and to Yassin Gaber for our Tuesday night salons in Stella. Thank you to friends who read the manuscript in its various overlong stages: Mai Saad, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Susan Glynn, Khalid Abdalla, and Sherief Gaber. Thank you to Alexandra Pringle for her introductions; to Matthew Hamilton for always having the right advice; and to Ismail Richard Hamilton for helping me hold a chaotic life together.
Thank you to Lee Brackstone for his eye; to Sean McDonald for his confidence; and to David Godwin for his good taste in manuscripts. Thank you to Salma Shamel and Rodrigo Corral for their beautiful cover designs; to Ibrahim El Moallem of al-Shorouk, Marie-Pierre Gracedieu of Gallimard, Diana Gvozden of Hollands Diep, Luigi Brioschi of Guanda, and Eduardo Rabasa of Sexto Piso for their early enthusiasm; to my translators, Ehab Zelaky, Sarah Gurcel, Massimiliano Galli, Pon Ruiter, and Inga Pellisa; and to Marine Vauchere, Simona Lari, and Stella Nelissen. I have had the great honor of working with teams at the very best publishing houses, so thank you to Lizzie Bishop, Rachel Alexander, Hannah Marshall, Maria Garbutt-Lucero, Eleanor Crow, and Emma Cheshire at Faber; and to Susan Goldfarb, Jane Elias, Sarah Scire, Nora Barlow, and Maya Binyam at FSG.
Finally, thank you to my wife, Yasmin El-Rifae, for the life that made writing possible, and to my mother, Ahdaf Soueif, for the life that made it necessary.
A Note About the Author
Omar Robert Hamilton is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Based in Cairo and New York, he has written for The Guardian, the London Review of Books, and Guernica. He is a cofounder of Mosireen, a Cairo media collective formed in 2011, and of the Palestine Festival of Literature. The City Always Wins is his debut novel. You can sign up for email updates here.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Part 1: Tomorrow
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Part 2: Today
Part 3: Yesterday
Acknowledgments
Thanks
A Note About the Author
Copyright
MCD
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2017 by Omar Robert Hamilton
All rights reserved
First edition, 2017
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hamilton, Omar Robert 1984– author.
Title: The city always wins: a novel / Omar Robert Hamilton.
Description: New York: MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016059405|ISBN 9780374123970 (hardback)|ISBN 9780374716332 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Dissenters—Egypt—Cairo—Fiction.|Protest movements—Egypt—Cairo—Fiction|Egypt—History—Protests, 2011–—Fiction.|Egypt—Politics and government—1981–—Fiction.|Maydān al-Taḥrīr (Cairo, Egypt)—Fiction.|Cairo (Egypt)—Fiction.|Political fiction.|BISAC: FICTION / Literary.|FICTION / Historical.|GSAFD: Historical fiction.
Classification: LCC PR9375.9.H36 C58 2017|DDC 823/.92—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016059405
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
www.fsgbooks.com
www.twitter.com/fsgbooks • www.facebook.com/fsgbooks