“Aisha”

A novel by Angela Catramadou-Parker

Cosmos Publishing Co. Inc., NJ

By Bill Fatsis

            The need for a book written with understanding and objectivity describing the wonders and contradictions of contemporary Egypt, a land shrouded in mystery, has long been felt. We hope the novel Aisha will fill that gap.

            Greek historian Herodotus was one of the first to write extensively about the land that possessed so many wonders which defied description. Not only is the climate different, he wrote, but the rivers unlike any rivers, and also the people reverse the common practice of mankind. The women attend the trade and markets, while the men sit at the loom; they knead dough with their feet, but they mix mud with their hands. Unlike the Greeks, when they write they move from right to the left. That was around the seventh century BC when the Greeks were frequent visitors to the Nile Valley.

            Today another Greek author, Angela Catramadou-Parker, born and raised in Egypt, wants to bring us up to our times with her novel Aisha, a novel of survival woven with historical events, romance and passion. The title character is a shrewd peasant girl who wants to change her destiny, escapes her poverty-stricken village to rise as one of the most celebrated dancers of her time. Aisha unfolds against an exotic and contemporary historical background, with the heroine involved in riots, political treachery, and sweeping events in Egypt covering the chaotic period of 1939 to 1952 and the revolution which brought about the first democracy in the land of the Great Pharaohs.

            The defining moment for Aisha is when, after years of self-absorption with her own security, she comes across information that the man she loves, as well as some revolutionary officers, are being set up by the police. If caught, they will be shot as traitors. Aisha combines the epic of Gone with the Wind and the romanticism of Casablanca. Aisha is an utterly compelling novel with a sense of history in the making.

            “it is my hope that the book will bring an appreciation and understanding of cultural differences and become a symbol of renewed faith in all of us and our creative efforts,” said Parker. A former journalist and foreign correspondent for Gynaika magazine published in Athens, Greece, Parker is fluent in several languages and has the rare distinction of having been published in both Greek and English. A cum laude graduate from Arizona State University, she lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Aisha is her second novel.