Memories of Alexandria: From a Void to Nothingness

Set against the background of what was then the world's most cosmopolitan city this revised and expanded edition of "Memories of Alexandria" tells the story of a Spanish-Egyptian family from the years immediately after the Spanish Civil War to Egypt's decades of revolution, unrest and conflict between the late forties and the mid-sixties. The story line runs incessantly back and forth, embracing, like a lively journey, past and future, portraying historical accounts and colourful, three dimensional characters from all walks of life with a philosophical, cynical and cranky approach to the distressingly phoney values of man - and the uselessness of it all. It is also the story of the "uprooted," those Egyptian Khawagat (foreigners) who, after revolution and wars, were forced out of a country they thought was theirs by unforeseen and tragic circumstances. The writing is sincere, cynical, eccentric, ironic, candid, sexy, bold, crude and desperate. In a nutshell, "Memories of Alexandria" - From a void to nothingness - is a surrealistic, philosophical story of bygone times. Ricardo Wahby Tapia is now retired after forty years in business, mainly in the tourist industry. He lives in Madrid and Cabez n de la Sal (Cantabria).