Points of the compass
By: stories by Sahar Tawfiq ; translated from the Arabic and with an introduction and notes by Marilyn Booth.
Contributors: Booth, Marilyn.
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Fayetteville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 81
Subjects: Tawfiq, Sahar, -- 1951- -- Translations into English; Short stories, Arabic -- Egypt -- Translations into English; Egypt -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Work titles: Short stories.
Description: This collection of short stories, recipient of a 1994 University of Arkansas Press Award for Arabic Literature in Translation, presents one of Egypt's most innovative contemporary fiction writers. In her first collection published in English, Sahar Tawfiq explores the consciousnesses of young women alienated from their surroundings in today's rapidly changing Egyptian society.

In questioning the place of long-powerful myths and beliefs, she is in the forefront of writers examining the legacy of the Pharaohs as it permeates current Egyptian identities and practices, especially in the countryside. Her characters are shaped by journeys through modern social and economic trials and the ageless troubles of the human spirit and heart.