Nadia Wassef's bookshop memoir – a chronicle of Egypt's upheaval

Nadia Wassef co-founded the Diwan bookstore in Cairo in 2002.

Egyptian author Nadia Wassef talks about opening the first independent bookstore in her home country; and her latest book in which she celebrates books and booksellers. By Manasi Gopalakrishnan

By Manasi Gopalakrishnan

Nadia Wassef has seen a lot in her 40-odd years. Born in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, she was seven in 1981 when the Muslim Brotherhood murdered President Anwar Sadat and deputy Hosni Mubarak became Egypt's president. She was 37 when the Arab Spring unseated the dictator in 2011.

A year after Abdul Fattah al-Sisi took power in 2014, she moved to the UK. Before that, Wassef had spent most of her life in Zamalek, an island in the middle of the river Nile in Cairo's west. It was here that she and her sister Hind decided to open their first bookshop, Diwan.

Now she has immortalised the experience in a book, Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller, to be published in English on 5 October.

The idea of a bookshop

The inspiration for the store came at a time when Wassef felt low and frustrated. "Our father had passed away after a very long and hard illness," she recalled. Then at a dinner with friends, she was asked a question: "If you could do anything, what would you do?"

Bookshop interior, with shelves piled with books (photo: Dany Eid Photography) — "Every shelf has to count, every book has to make a contribution": Wassef and her sister opened the very first Diwan bookshop in Zamalek, Cairo – the district where they grew up. Their vision was to provide a space that would stimulate discussion and community. With curated bookshelves, and offering books in Arabic, French, English and German, Diwan also stands for intercultural dialogue

Wassef and her sister spoke in unison: they would open a bookshop. "I remember that night we sat there dreaming about it," she said. "Hind, my sister, said: 'It's not going to be just any kind of bookstore, every shelf has to count, every book has to make a contribution.'"

As recounted in Shelf Life, the name Diwan was suggested to the co-founders by their mother Faiza. The word, Faiza explained, meant an anthology of poems in Persian and Arabic, but also stood for a place where people gathered. It is used to connote a guesthouse and even an elegant couch.

Diwani was also a word used to describe Arabic calligraphy, said Faiza, adding that the word would be easy to pronounce for English, French and Arabic speakers. Diwan was born.

Opened in 2002 as the only independent bookstore of its kind in Egypt, Diwan soon became a massive success. Within a decade it had stores in ten locations and around 150 employees. This all despite a revolution unfolding in the country.

A testimony to the times

Wassef's chronicle of the bookstore is a testimony to the times. "In the last 10 years, we've seen revolutions, we've seen a financial meltdown, we've seen another revolution," Wassef said. She is referring to the Arab Spring that began in 2011, the brief democratic government that saw the Muslim Brotherhood governing the country, and the ascent of the country's current leader, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

Cover of Nadia Wassef's "Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller" (due for release in English on 5 October 2021; published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux) — Celebrating a Cairo that existed 20 years ago: steering away from the black-and-white nature of politics, Wassef comments, "The problem with human beings is that we think in dualities. We think in opposites because it's easy. Unfortunately, easy answers are lovely, but they don't give you very much"

Wassef said she wrote the book, not only to better understand "my relationship with the city and the bookstore," but to celebrate "a Cairo that existed 20 years ago."

She describes the bookshop as "like a sister you might not get along with anymore, but you hold on to her, because you know the two of you are the only people who have the same memory."

Diwan was also her way of tackling stereotypes, especially the idea that women in Egypt had problems doing business.

"Tell me how do men deal with being men [in business]," said Wassef, who decided that she wouldn't let these conventions get in her way. "And I think when you operate from that mindset, you keep marching on," she said, adding that her biggest challenge was a universal one: dealing with bureaucracy.

The importance of a bookstore

When the Arab Spring came in 2011, it was not, on the one hand, conducive to business. "When you're in the middle of a revolution and you don't know whether people are staying home or going out, whether suppliers will deliver," she recalled.

But on the other hand, bookstores like Diwan, with curated shelves and an adjacent cafe, thrive on discussions and ideas, on freedoms she says are restricted in Sisi's Egypt.

Wassef tries to steer away from the black-and-white nature of politics: "The problem of human beings is that we think in dualities. We think in opposites because it's easy. Unfortunately, easy answers are lovely, but they don't give you very much."

That is partly why Diwan sold not only Arabic, but also English, French and German books, signifying a dialogue between cultures rather than a "clash of civilisations" – as in Samuel Huntington's landmark book of the same name.

Bookshops "are important in our lives", said Wassef, because they are sometimes the source of an irreplaceable community that can't be found via the click of an online order button.

"Bookstores anchor us, they help us to travel safely, because you can come back," she added. "You go and you return. And this is one of the things that is extremely empowering."

Shelf Life is therefore a "homage to books and bookstores". And, like Egypt, Diwan has certainly seen more than its fair share of change.

Manasi Gopalakrishnan