Joseph I. Arar

  
From the tumultuous 1960s comes this captivating memoir of Jewish life in predominantly Muslim Egypt.  
The entertaining and informative narration recounts many
aspects of a culturally rich, vibrant and diverse society. Interwoven with the narration are details of fascinating and little-known historical  events.
While the work evokes the anxieties of the Jewish community in this strong anti-Israeli climate it also recounts stories of the – at-times kind and tolerant, at-times hostile and xenophobic – majority.  
The memoir is a colorful and intellectually stimulating depiction of the author’s life in a society embracing a renewed nationalism at the expense of its multi-ethnic character.   Follow him as he takes you on an engaging, emotional journey against a colorful and everchanging social and political backdrop. 
From inside the book:
… By order of the government of the United Arab Republic, this property and business have been seized and are now the property of the people.
… Dr. Sidney Gottlieb had arrived … carrying a tube of toothpaste laced with poison. All that had to be done was to slip that tube of toothpaste into (his) room.
… We hacked them in pieces and put them into the acid. …We were there two days. We did things an animal wouldn’t do. And that’s why we were drunk, stone drunk.
… He shoves the boy’s hand away from him and proceeds to slap the boy’s face several times as he pushes him down the steps and forcibly escorts him out of the building.
… Being an avowed communist, he is periodically hauled off to jail.
… Four Israeli prisoners had been allowed to attend services. …..their noses were neither particularly long nor crooked.
… A man came from behind and put a black hood over his head…..  In a swift motion, the executioner pulled the lever. With a dull thug, Mohsein’s body dropped and dangled at the end of the rope.
… Undoubtedly watching this spectacle on television, along with millions of Egyptians, is a boy my age by the name of Ayman Al-Zawahari, … the man who many years later would mastermind a devastating attack on New York’s World Trade Center.
… This is how the master satisfies his desires. The boy is his sex toy.
… They cut certain parts off … some parts which give pleasure to a woman.
… They stole the country from us. We’re the originals, we’re the descendants of the pharaohs, we are the true Egyptians
… Four hundred and seventy … entered the famous Citadel. Only one is known to have escaped.