Diary of a Country Prosecutor

About the Book

Who shot Kamar al-Dawla Alwan? Was it a crime of passion? What was the role of the beautiful peasant girl Rim? Is the mysterious Sheikh Asfur as crazy as he seems?

Diary of a Country Prosecutor is an Egyptian comedy of errors. Partly autobiographical, it is written as the journal of a young public prosecutor posted to a village in rural Egypt. Imbued with the ideals of a European education, he encounters a world of poverty and backwardness where an imported legal system is both alien and incomprehensible.

About the Author

Tawfik al-Hakim was born in Alexandria in 1898 and studied law in Paris. He worked as a public prosecutor in a provincial Egyptian town before becoming the Arab world’s leading dramatist, as well as a major short-story writer and man of letters. He died in 1987.

Reviews

‘A satirical tale of country life under a repressive and far-away Cairo legal system.’
Literary Review

‘Touching and yet savagely funny.’
The Bookseller

‘A sophisticated mix of irony and objectivity, coldness and compassion.’
Voice Literary Supplement