Taxi (English edition) (Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Taxi for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
'Bloomsbury Qatar's enterprising list of Arabic fiction brings a welcome new spin for this effervescent and free-spirited convoy of Egyptian stories: a huge hit on publication in 2006. In 58 short sections, Al-Khamissi introduces us to the lives, hopes, fears and (above all) the deliciously rendered voices of Cairo's cabbies. Jonathan Wright's translation catches their raucous, ribald, but also tender and melancholic, drift. Money, love, family, politics, and the sheer surreal mayhem of the daily grind under Mubarak's regime, drive this invigorating panorama of a city, and a country, stuck in an endless tailback. Prior to Egypt's revolution, Taxi would have told you more than a thousand Twitter feeds about what was coming down the road beside the Nile.' --Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
'This debut collection of 58 fictional monologues by Cairo taxi drivers proves an eye-opening experience, as they discourse on matters as diverse as bootleg video games, Nile fishing, malnourished policemen, the influence of Kurosawa on Egyptian cinema; plus more predictable topics (the double lives of veiled women, censorship and repression, and of course, all those wars: six day, Yom Kippur, the Gulf, Iraq …). Dipped in and out of...this democratic cacophony transforms into a fresh and fast crash course not just in the backdrop to the Arab spring, but in all aspects of contemporary North African culture and people, from ever-present convenience foods to extreme hunger, and from economic migrants to avant-garde artists. We are all the richer for it.' --Chris Ross, The Guardian
'Taxi's brilliance is that it captures the point at which cabs cease to be just a means of transportation...' Foreign Policy Magazine
'Illustrates the Revolution,' -- Le Monde, France
'The novel that predicted the uprising,'-- France 24 --Various reviewers
'This debut collection of 58 fictional monologues by Cairo taxi drivers proves an eye-opening experience, as they discourse on matters as diverse as bootleg video games, Nile fishing, malnourished policemen, the influence of Kurosawa on Egyptian cinema; plus more predictable topics (the double lives of veiled women, censorship and repression, and of course, all those wars: six day, Yom Kippur, the Gulf, Iraq …). Dipped in and out of...this democratic cacophony transforms into a fresh and fast crash course not just in the backdrop to the Arab spring, but in all aspects of contemporary North African culture and people, from ever-present convenience foods to extreme hunger, and from economic migrants to avant-garde artists. We are all the richer for it.' --Chris Ross, The Guardian
'Taxi's brilliance is that it captures the point at which cabs cease to be just a means of transportation...' --Foreign Policy magazine
'This debut collection of 58 fictional monologues by Cairo taxi drivers proves an eye-opening experience, as they discourse on matters as diverse as bootleg video games, Nile fishing, malnourished policemen, the influence of Kurosawa on Egyptian cinema; plus more predictable topics (the double lives of veiled women, censorship and repression, and of course, all those wars: six day, Yom Kippur, the Gulf, Iraq …). Dipped in and out of...this democratic cacophony transforms into a fresh and fast crash course not just in the backdrop to the Arab spring, but in all aspects of contemporary North African culture and people, from ever-present convenience foods to extreme hunger, and from economic migrants to avant-garde artists. We are all the richer for it.' --Chris Ross, The Guardian
'Taxi's brilliance is that it captures the point at which cabs cease to be just a means of transportation...' Foreign Policy Magazine
'Illustrates the Revolution,' -- Le Monde, France
'The novel that predicted the uprising,'-- France 24 --Various reviewers
'This debut collection of 58 fictional monologues by Cairo taxi drivers proves an eye-opening experience, as they discourse on matters as diverse as bootleg video games, Nile fishing, malnourished policemen, the influence of Kurosawa on Egyptian cinema; plus more predictable topics (the double lives of veiled women, censorship and repression, and of course, all those wars: six day, Yom Kippur, the Gulf, Iraq …). Dipped in and out of...this democratic cacophony transforms into a fresh and fast crash course not just in the backdrop to the Arab spring, but in all aspects of contemporary North African culture and people, from ever-present convenience foods to extreme hunger, and from economic migrants to avant-garde artists. We are all the richer for it.' --Chris Ross, The Guardian
'Taxi's brilliance is that it captures the point at which cabs cease to be just a means of transportation...' --Foreign Policy magazine
Review
'Taxi's brilliance is that it captures the point at which cabs cease to be just a means of transportation' Foreign Policy Magazine The novel that predicted the uprising France 24 A book to make you feel guilty you ever tried to bargain down a cab fare in any poor country Chicago Tribune, US A frank, funny and sometimes heartbreaking blast of jokes, anecdotes and revelations The Independent, UK Illustrates the revolution Le Monde, France The new literary star from the Arab world Deutsche Welle, Germany The ultimate book on the Egyptian Revolution Suddeutsche Zeitung,Germany Bloomsbury Qatar's enterprising list of Arabic fiction brings a welcome new spin for this effervescent and free-spirited convoy of Egyptian stories: a huge hit on publication in 2006. In 58 short sections, Al-Khamissi introduces us to the lives, hopes, fears and (above all) the deliciously rendered voices of Cairo's cabbies. Jonathan Wright's translation catches their raucous, ribald, but also tender and melancholic, drift. Money, love, family, politics, and the sheer surreal mayhem of the daily grind under Mubarak's regime, drive this invigorating panorama of a city, and a country, stuck in an endless tailback. Prior to Egypt's revolution, Taxi would have told you more than a thousand Twitter feeds about what was coming down the road beside the Nile. -- Boyd Tonkin The Independent This debut collection of 58 fictional monologues by Cairo taxi drivers proves an eye-opening experience, as they discourse on matters as diverse as bootleg video games, Nile fishing, malnourished policemen, the influence of Kurosawa on Egyptian cinema; plus more predictable topics (the double lives of veiled women, censorship and repression, and of course, all those wars: six day, Yom Kippur, the Gulf, Iraq ...). Dipped in and out of...this democratic cacophony transforms into a fresh and fast crash course not just in the backdrop to the Arab spring, but in all aspects of contemporary North African culture and people, from ever-present convenience foods to extreme hunger, and from economic migrants to avant-garde artists. We are all the richer for it. -- Chris Ross The Guardian 'Prior to Egypt's revolution, Taxi would have told you more than a thousand Twitter feeds about what was coming down the road beside the Nile Boyd Tonkin, The Independent, UK Dipped in and out of...this democratic cacophony transforms into a fresh and fast crash course not just in the backdrop to the Arab spring, but in all aspects of contemporary North African culture and people, from ever-present convenience foods to extreme hunger, and from economic migrants to avantgarde artists. We are all the richer for it. Chris Ross, The Guardian, UK
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Taxi is a window on the world. This amazing collection of stories from the back seats of Cairo's 100,000 or so cabs takes the reader on a journey through the ups and downs of life, let alone the winding streets of Egypt's capital. Chosen by the Independent as one of the six best books to have come out of the Arabic-language market ever, it is, quite simply, unmissable. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to anyone who wants to know what makes modern Egypt - and the Middle East in general - tick like the meters in the cabs themselves. Khaled al Khamissi is a genius -- listen to him.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought Taxi after having read the three reviews on this website and cannot see why it was so highly rated. I am still wading through this book in an effort to find one good story. I have found this a most disappointing book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a truly excellent book. On one level, it's a wonderful series of short shorts about Cairo; on another, it's possibly the best introduction to that city, and to Egypt, that you coulod hope to read. I go to Cairo regularly on business and I cannot imagine any other way for someone who does not know the place, and knows Egypt either not at all or only from tourism, to learn what makes Egyptians tick. Most of all, though, it's a great read.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Engaging
I found this book very interesting, because it shows the story from an unusual angle. It really made me curious to know more about Egypt, but also showed how Egypt is. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Maria
Any Old Four Wheels That Move x 80,000
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a taxi driver? In a fast moving collection of 58 short encounters, Khaled Khamisi plonks the reader in a selection of Cairo... Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2009 by Jez
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
