1940s. Egypt is under British occupation. Abdelaziz Hamam, a bankrupt notable from Upper Egypt, is forced to move to Cairo and work as a warehouseman at the Automobile Club, a building-symbol of the corrupt monarchy collaborating with the occupiers. The elite of the ruling class, aristocrats, foreign diplomats, and officials frequent the club. At the head is the king himself, who gambles and entertains, along with his ruthless Nubian chief steward, who imposes his authority on the servants in the most authoritarian manner, trampling on their every right. Outside the club, the country is in turmoil, and outlawed nationalist and liberation parties begin to emerge...
What is the price of revolution and what is the price of submission? Around this question, Aswany essentially builds his polyphonic novel with multiple narrators. A rich, dense novel full of action, events, and twists, where social conflicts intersect with personal stories and where politics intertwines with the daily lives of people.

Aswany returns with "The Automobile Club of Egypt" to the colorful narrative style of "The Yacoubian Building" to speak, through the atmosphere and context of another era, about today and the ever-relevant and urgent need for democracy and justice to prevail.