That Smell and Notes from Prison (Ndp)
“The walls made four corners. The door was shut. The ceiling was near. No help.” So the narrator, recently released, recalls his prison experience in Ibrahim’s somewhat-autobiographical novel That Smell. He remains terrified of the police, who come by every evening to enforce his dusk-to-dawn curfew. During the day, he tries half-heartedly to write, seek employment, and reconnect with family and friends, but mostly he’s on the streets of Cairo, looking and listening. Born in 1937, the prolific Ibrahim, who served a five-year sentence for his political activities, remains prominent. That Smell was the first Arabic modernist novel; published in 1966, it was promptly banned. In this new and faithful translation, translator Creswell’s useful introduction situates this groundbreaking work. A powerful essay by Ibrahim provides an account of the book’s original reception, and excerpts from his Notes from Prison reveal how crucial reading and writing were to his survival. --Michael Autrey