num_pages: 96
description: A delightful deeply funny novel about the triumph of the perfect prankster  an elegant gentleman pickpocket in Cairo.His eyes shine with a glimmer of perpetual amusement; his sartorial taste is impeccable; Ossama is a thief not a legitimated thief such as a minister banker or real-estate developer; he is a modest thief. He knows that by dressing with the same elegance as the licensed robbers of the people he could elude the mistrustful gaze of the police and so he glides lazily around the cafes of Cairo seeking his prey. His country may be a disaster but hes a hedonist convinced that nothing on this earth is tragic for an intelligent man.One fat victim (everything about him oozed opulence and theft on a grand scale) is relieved of his crocodile wallet. In it Ossama finds not just a gratifying amount of cash but also a letter  a letter from the Ministry of Public Works cutting off its ties to the fat man. A source of rich bribes heretofore the fat man is now too hot to handle; hes a fabulously wealthy real-estate developer lately much in the news because one of his cheap buildings has just collapsed killing 50 tenants. Ossama by some divine decree has become the repository of a scandal of epic proportions. And so he decides he must act. . . .
language: English
title: The Colors of Infamy
publisher: New Directions