In the Yacoubian Building, an apartment complex built in the 1930s in Cairo, a remnant of former glory, people of various social classes live and work, forming a faithful microcosm of modern Egyptian society. The author, continuing the tradition of Naguib Mahfouz, observes his characters, the residents of the building, rich and poor, good and bad, without judging them, with a tender and affectionate gaze, with pain and understanding. We experience the hopes and rebellion of Taha, a young Islamist who dreams of becoming a policeman, the bitterness and disappointment of Hatim, a homosexual intellectual in a society that permits pleasure but not love, the nostalgia for a brilliant past of the now fallen aristocrat Zaki, the missteps of the poor and beautiful Bousaina.

Aswany, with a tender and non-critical eye, crafts exceptional characters, all of whom, without exception, are caught in the trap of a society where political corruption allies with illicit enrichment, religious hypocrisy, and the rise of Islamism, where the arrogance and lawlessness of the powerful translate into the exploitation of the weak, where youthful idealism can easily turn into extremism, and where, nevertheless, ideas and views for a non-violent society still maintain their prestige. The novel shows us what everyone can see around them, but which only literature can truly reveal.

"The Yacoubian Building" has become an iconic book of Arabic literature, read again and again worldwide, and its power is not exhausted in its exceptional, indeed, insight into Egypt at the turn of the twentieth century. As a worthy heir of Dostoevsky and Zola, Aswany speaks in a striking manner about the human condition, about human passions and weaknesses, about dreams and failures, and his mirror, compassionate and philanthropic, is for this reason even more chillingly true.