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Friendly Fire for Fourth Estate

05.06.08

Fourth Estate has secured Friendly Fire: Ten Tales of Today's Cairo, a collection of short stories by Egyptian dentist turned novelist Alaa Al Aswany.

The book had originally been mooted at the London Book Fair to be the flagship title of Arabia Books, a joint venture between Arcadia and Haus Publishing. However, the deal was never fully signed and UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Egypt were bought from the American University in Cairo Press [AUC] by Fourth Estate's Nicholas Pearson and Mark Richards.

Harry Hall, sales manager at Haus Publishing, said: "Basically, we thought we had secured it with AUC, but unfortunately Fourth Estate had a first option on publishing all of his work. In the end we had to take it off our list."

Richards said that Friendly Fire was about "disaffected young men in Cairo and how they see themselves in relation to wider society". "He's very good at drawing a character and situation very quickly," he said.

Al Aswany's first novel, The Yacoubian Building, has sold more than 35,000 copies in the UK since publication last year.

Rights deal Fourth Estate Alaa Al Aswany

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