Circling the Square: Stories from the Egyptian Revolution

by Wendell Steavenson

Overview

Through a series of stunningly rendered, character-drive vignettes, New Yorker writer Wendell Steavenson recounts the events of the Egyptian Revolution—from Mubarak’s fall to Morsi’s. Here is the panoply of Tahrir Square, a pointillist portrait of a people enacting and reacting to change and hope.

In January 2011, when the crowds gathered to protest Mubarak’s three decades of rule in Egypt, Wendell Steavenson went to cover the events. She spent her days on Tahrir Square, among the tents and the graffiti and the tanks, watching amazed as Egyptians of every stripe came together to challenge the might of the repressive status quo.

Circling the Square is the extraordinary story of the recent Egyptian Revolution as experienced by Cairo’s citizens. Steavenson takes us to the heart of the Revolution and paints indelible portraits of ordinary Egyptians grappling with hope and change amid violence and bloodshed. Here is Bakr, a young man from the slums with his homemade pistol; a seasoned observer who gives up on analysis; a leader who doesn’t want to lead thrust uncomfortably into the spotlight; a Muslim Brotherhood politician trying to smooth over a restless parliament; and a military intelligence officer convinced that only the army can save Egypt.

Steavenson captures the cacophony of dizzying events as violence and elections ebbed and flowed around the revolution, tipping it towards democracy and then back into the military’s hands. Mixing reportage and memoir, anecdotes and incidents and conversations, Steavenson shows how the particular and the personal can illuminate more universal questions: What does democracy mean and what happens when a revolution throws everything up in the air?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062375261
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/15/2016
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Wendell Steavenson wrote for The New Yorker from Cairo for more than a year during the Egyptian revolution. She has spent most of the past decade and a half reporting from the Middle East and the Caucasus for the Guardian, Prospect magazine, Slate, Granta and other publications. Steavenson has written two previous books, both critically acclaimed: Stories I Stole, about post-Soviet Georgia, and The Weight of a Mustard Seed, about life and morality in Saddam's Iraq and the aftermath of the American invasion. She was also a 2014 Nieman Fellow at Harvard. Steavenson currently lives in Paris.

Table of Contents

Beforeword 3

Tanks 9

Tahrir 27

Hassan 53

Welter 63

Tewfik House 89

Koshari 113

When Platon Met Wael Ghonim 115

The Army is a Red Line 131

Bread, Life 143

Milling 151

Let's Go for a Walk 161

Every Friday 173

Maspero 179

Z 187

On Thugs 191

Trees Grow 199

November December January 201

Circle of Deceit 207

A Parliament 213

Mogamma 217

Anniversary 221

The Second Battle of Mohammed Mahmoud 225

The Skin 235

The Standard Bearer 239

Graffiti 249

Broken Cameras 257

Islam is the Solution! 263

Merry-Go-Round 271

Intelligence 279

On The Beach 287

Election 293

Morsi is the President 303

Lie Down for a Bit 307

1900: Two Tribes 309

Down with the Brotherhood 313

Citadel 327

Napoleon 331

Reasons to be Cheerful 335

Waves and Sea 345

Afterword 359

Note about the Graffiti 361

Acknowledgments 365

Editorial Reviews

Few books are better than this one at conveying the confusion and excitement of those days on the square.” — New York Times Book Review

“Steavenson weaves together a mosaic portrait that tightly focuses on the people…of the revolution.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[Steavenson] creates a vibrant sense of being on the ground in Cairo…” — Los Angeles Times

“There is much to praise in her evocative, impressionistic sketches of the stirring events in Egypt…Her actual writing is first-rate. She cares deeply about her subjects but her critical acuity and keen sense of humor see through their foibles and contradictions.” — Washington Times

“A moving, empathetic portrayal of a central movement of our time: the brave Egyptian people’s attempt to end repression without the tools or the leaders to succeed.” — Library Journal

“Impassioned coverage from the front lines of a historic Middle Eastern uprising… An intensive firsthand exploration of modern Egyptian liberation and solidarity.” — Kirkus

From the Publisher

[Steavenson] creates a vibrant sense of being on the ground in Cairo…

|Los Angeles Times

[Steavenson] creates a vibrant sense of being on the ground in Cairo…

Los Angeles Times

Steavenson's book, Circling the Square, is an unabashedly Tahrir-centric account of the Egyptian uprising and its aftermath. Her main interlocutors are those who were on the square or allied with the demonstrators: members of the liberal elite, opposition intellectuals, foreign and local journalists. Although this skews the book in important ways, it adds to the strength of her depiction of what happened on the square, of what it was like to be in the thick of things.

The New York Times Book Review - Robyn Creswell

Steavenson weaves together a mosaic portrait that tightly focuses on the people…of the revolution.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Few books are better than this one at conveying the confusion and excitement of those days on the square.

New York Times Book Review

There is much to praise in her evocative, impressionistic sketches of the stirring events in Egypt…Her actual writing is first-rate. She cares deeply about her subjects but her critical acuity and keen sense of humor see through their foibles and contradictions.

Washington Times

2015-04-16
Impassioned coverage from the front lines of a historic Middle Eastern uprising. New Yorker staff writer Steavenson (The Weight of a Mustard Seed: The Intimate Story of an Iraqi General and His Family During Thirty Years of Tyranny, 2009) reported from Cairo during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution amid President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, and she diligently charts her thoughts and experiences in this series of biographical sketches and observances. Arriving in Cairo a day after Egypt's Day of Rage, the author became immediately immersed in the highly volatile landscape as friendly yet scrutinizing armed citizen committees patrolled Tahrir Square while tanks and militia in riot gear ascended the Corniche El-Nile. Steavenson came to appreciate and become enthralled by this prideful population eager to commit their newfound freedom to video and social media. Traversing an "awkward mix of military with civilians," she encountered an emboldened Egyptian counterculture, and she brings their stories to vibrant life. Among them were a prominent, politically active gynecologist upon whose panoramic balcony Steavenson met a colorful host of budding radicals; proprietors of a century-old, family-owned bakery; a young translator who accompanied the author to sprawling midnight sit-ins; a sensitive, street-wise taxi driver; and a cutthroat lieutenant colonel with Egyptian military intelligence. Collectively, their stories illustrate the rich Egyptian cultural tapestry of a triumphant people, even as a new president rose to power and violence erupted on Steavenson's final day in Cairo. The author's anecdotes and reflections are complemented by photographs of ubiquitous graffiti found throughout Tahrir Square, which formed an artistic voice of the people, creatively exemplifying their defiance and revolutionary fervor. Though her own personal narration bears weight to the experience, Steavenson allows the reformists she encountered to speak for themselves as they strived for social justice: "I would need to be a novelist," she writes, "to write a better truth than these glimpses offer." An intensive firsthand exploration of modern Egyptian liberation and solidarity.

Kirkus Reviews