Egypt is the country of a thousand authors, but few are remembered across generations as the luminaries of the craft. Bahaa Taher was a novelist, a literary connoisseur, and one of the most widely read authors of his generation. Born in Cairo in 1935, Taher bore Upper Egyptian roots from his parents. As the youngest of eight children, Taher’s mother would regularly inspire him with stories from her birthplace, the village of Karnak, Luxor, which he would often return to in his writing. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Cairo University in 1956, and his masters degree in media in 1973. After graduating, Taher began his career as a translator for the government, and aided in launching Radio Cairo’s culture programme, which produced radio dramas. As a storyteller with a heart for Egypt, Taher was a member of Egypt’s left-wing, avant-garde literary circles. He was a regular contributor to Galerie 68 magazine, which published political pieces that were deemed too controversial for mainstream publication, and he published his first prose in 1964. His first novel, Sharq al-Nakhil (East of the Palms), was not published until 1985 because of…
