From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ezzat el Kamhawi
Born	December 23, 1961(1961-12-23) Sharqia Governorate, Egypt
Occupation	Novelist - journalist
Notable work(s)	The City of Pleasure, Times for Joy, The Grove of Sadness and Bliss, A room overlooking the Nile, The Guard, Book seductiveness

Ezzat el Kamhawi Arabic: عزت القمحاوي‎ is a novelist and a journalist. He is the Senior Editor of the most widely circulating Akhbar Al-Adab, a weekly journal dedicated to literature and cultural issues in the Arab World.

He was born in 1961 and graduated from the department of journalism in the Faculty of Mass Communications, Cairo University in 1983.

Early life and career

elKamhawi was born on 23 December 1961 in Sharqia Governorate, Egypt, before graduating from thanawya amma (equivalent to high school) he had articles published for him on Al Gomhuria newspaper.

after graduating from the department of journalism in the Faculty of Mass Communications, Cairo University, he started working for Al-Akhbar, where he helped establish Akhbar Al-Adab 10 years later, a widely known literature magazine, he now writes weekly for Akhbar Al-Adab, Almasry Alyoum, and Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

his work

His published literary works include:

• It Happened in the land of Dust and Mud (Stories) (published by Dar Soad Al Sabbah in 1992).

• The City of Pleasure (Novel) (published by the General Organization for Cultural Centers in 1997 - second edition by el-Ain publishing in 2009).

• Times for Joy (Stories) (published by the General Organization for Cultural Centers in 2000).

• The Grove of Sadness and Bliss (published by Dar el-Hilal in 2003).

• A room overlooking the Nile (Novel) (published by Merit Publishing in 2004 in Cairo, and Dar Al Howar in 2004 Latakia, Syria - second edition by Merit Publishing in 2006).

• The Guard (Novel) (published by el-Ain publishing, Cairo 2008).

• Book seductiveness (published by el-Ain publishing, Cairo 2009).

The City of Pleasure

main article

second edition of "The City of Pleasure" released 2009

A city like no other, guarded by the goddess of pleasure and, ruled by a licentious king who dedicated his time to carnal pleasures and a princess who dreams of love and tender empathy. The priests decide to design the walls of the princess's room with figures of embracing lovers and burnt incense and chanted their magical incantations that the pictures on the wall may come to life and the dream of the princess for true love might come true.

People real and shadowy, strong slaves and emperors have met their doom at the gates of the City of Pleasure. Eventually the gates of the impenetrable city succumbs under the charm of two ingenious commodities: fried potatoes and pepsi-cola. No one knows the real history of the City of Pleasure and no welcome visitor has ever escaped its enchantment.

This is the novel that has been structured from human myths melted down and recreated one of the most perfectly executed literary whims. It is no longer possible to speak of modern Arabic literary narrative without including The City of Pleasure and the enriching addition it has provided to the art of the modern Arabic novel par excellence.

External links

• el-kamhawi's Facebook group
• el-kamhawi's page on almasry alyoum
• Akhbar Al Adab official web site