Zaat (novel)

Zaat: The Tale of One Woman's Life in Egypt During the Last Fifty Years (ذات) is a novel by Sonallah Ibrahim. The book was originally published in 1992. The English translation by Anthony Calderbank was published by the American University in Cairo Press in 2001. Hosam Aboul-Ela of the University of Houston wrote in 2001 that it was Ibrahim's "most celebrated novel to date". An excerpt is within the anthology The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic edited by Denys Johnson-Davies. Sarah Hahn of The Middle East Journal wrote that the book was "[r]enowned for its black humor and ironic commentary on modern Egyptian life". It is about the life of Zaat, a woman from a lower middle class background. Zaat chronicles her relationships, the surrounding political climates, and her experiences. She lives through the governments of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak.