Man in the White Sharkskin Suit

In vivid and graceful prose, Lucette Lagnado re-creates the majesty and cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years between World War II and Gamal Abdel Nasser's rise to power. Her father, Leon, was a boulevardier who conducted business on the elegant terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, and later, in the cozy, dark bar of the Nile Hilton, dressed in his signature white sharkskin suit. But with the fall of King Farouk and Nasser's nationalization of Egyptian industry, Leon and his family lose everything. As streets are renamed, neighborhoods of their fellow Jews disbanded, and the city purged of all foreign influence, the Lagnados, too, must make their escape.With all of their belongings packed into twenty-six suitcases, their jewels and gold coins hidden in sealed tins of marmalade, Leon and his family depart for any land that will take them. The poverty and hardships they encounter in their flight from Cairo to Paris to New York are strikingly juxta-posed against the beauty and comforts of the lives they left behind.

ISBN 006082218X   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780060822187 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 272 Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Inc   Published in New York, NY Imprint HarperCollins   Series title P.S. (Paperback) Format Paperback   Height (mm) 203 Publication date 12 Nov 2008   Width (mm) 135 DEWEY 305.892407471   Spine width (mm) 22 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level General Pages 368

"A stunning achievement."--Andre Aciman, author of OUT OF EGYPT and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

 Be the first to write a customer review