Over the bridge
Record details
- ISBN: 9789774249747
- ISBN: 9774249747
- ISBN: 9781617974090
- ISBN: 9781617971969
- ISBN: 1617974099
- ISBN: 1617971960
-
Physical Description:
1 online resource.
remote
Computer data. - Edition: [International ed.].
- Publisher: Cairo ; New York : American University in Cairo Press, 2006.
Content descriptions
General Note: | CatMonthString:june.23 Multi-User. |
Type of Computer File or Data Note: | Text (HTML), electronic book. |
System Details Note: | Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 Mode of access: Internet. |
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note: | Access requires VIU IP addresses and is restricted to VIU students, faculty and staff. Access restricted by subscription. |
Issuing Body Note: | Made available online by JSTOR. |
Action Note: | digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve |
Source of Description Note: | Print version record. |
Search for related items by subject
Genre: | Fiction. |
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- I B TAURIS & CO LTD
Forging documents in an Egyptian government office, a bureaucrat 'authorizes' a police department for a nonexistent city in Upper Egypt in order to siphon off its monthly payroll. But beyond simply embezzling funds, he sets about imagining in detail the fictional city he has created the wealthy new district with its villas and swimming pools, the restless inhabitants of the poverty-stricken old quarter, and the Nile bridge that links the two. Most of all, he pictures the cruelty and corruption of the city's chief of police. But the longer he spends envisioning this city and its inhabitants, the more the boundaries between the real world and his imagination dissolve. - I B TAURIS & CO LTD
Forging documents in an Egyptian government office, a bureaucrat 'authorizes' a police department for a nonexistent city in Upper Egypt in order to siphon off its monthly payroll. But beyond simply embezzling funds, he sets about imagining in detail the fictional city he has created the wealthy new district with its villas and swimming pools, the restless inhabitants of the poverty-stricken old quarter, and the Nile bridge that links the two. Most of all, he pictures the cruelty and corruption of the city's chief of police. But the longer he spends envisioning this city and its inhabitants, the more the boundaries between the real world and his imagination dissolve. With its overlapping narratives, Over the Bridge is a subtle critique of governmental ineptness, economic and social injustice, and individual moral failings. In Mohamed El-Bisatie's hands, the human drive to create, and to control one's own and others' destinies, is invariably turned on its head, while attempts to do good frequently end up causing harm instead. Like Frankenstein's monster, the bureaucrat's elaborate illusion begins, gradually but relentlessly, to take on a reality and momentum of its own and, by the conclusion of the tale, reveals itself as having contained the seeds of its creator's demise. Intriguing and surprising, Over the Bridge is a compelling allegory about power and its abuse, the thin line between reality and make-believe, and the law of unintended consequences.