The warm and winning story of opening a modern bookstore where there were none, Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller recounts Nadia Wassef's troubles and triumphs as a founder and manager of Cairo-based Diwan.

'Fascinating and enlightening'

Choice Magazine


In 2002, three young women with no business degrees, no formal training, and nothing to lose founded a fiercely independent bookstore. At the time, nothing like Diwan existed in Cairo. Culture was languishing under government mismanagement, and books were considered a luxury, not a necessity. Over the next decade, these three women would contend with censors, chauvinists, critics, one another and many people who said they would never succeed in establishing Diwan as Cairo's leading bookstore.

Frank, fresh and very funny, Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller is a portrait of a country hurtling toward a revolution, a feminist rallying cry, and an unapologetic crash course in running a business under the law of entropy. Above all, it is a celebration of the power of words to bring us home.

'A unique memoir about career, life, love, friendship, motherhood, and the impossibility of succeeding at all of them at the same time. As a bookstore owner I found this fascinating. As a reader I found it fascinating. Blunt, honest, funny'
Jenny Lawson, author of Broken (in the best possible way)

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'A moving portrait of Diwan and the Cairo that embraced it, an ode to all the people who have kept it going' Harvard Review

In 2002, three young women with no business degrees, no formal training, and nothing to lose founded a fiercely independent bookstore. At the time, nothing like Diwan existed in Cairo. Culture was languishing under government mismanagement, and books were considered a luxury, not a necessity. Over the next decade, these three women would contend with censors, chauvinists, critics, one another and many people who said they would never succeed in establishing Diwan as Cairo's leading bookstore.

Frank, fresh and very funny, Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller is a portrait of a country hurtling toward a revolution, a feminist rallying cry, and an unapologetic crash course in running a business under the law of entropy. Above all, it is a celebration of the power of words to bring us home.

'A unique memoir about career, life, love, friendship, motherhood, and the impossibility of succeeding at all of them at the same time . . . fascinating. Blunt, honest, funny'
Jenny Lawson, author of Broken (in the best possible way)

'For every reader who has found solace in the aisles of a bookstore'
Emma Straub, author of All Adults Here