A story of corruption, sex and Islam

The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswany, Fourth Estate, €13.

Contemporary Cairo is a city of contradictions.

It is an urban capital overlooked by ancient pyramids - a Middle Eastern metropolis in the north-west corner of Africa. It is a city of rich historic wealth, and devastating poverty. It calls its citizens to worship five times a day, but rolls up the poor along with its prayer mat, as it returns to its ...