Ahdaf Soueif

Novelist Ahdaf Soueif was born in Cairo and educated in Egypt and England, where she studied for a Ph.D. at the University of Lancaster. She is the author of two collections of short stories, Aisha (1983) and Sandpiper (1996), and two novels: In the Eye of the Sun (1992), about a young Egyptian woman's life in Egypt and England, where she goes to study as a postgraduate, set against key events in the history of modern Egypt; and The Map of Love (1999), the story of a love affair between an Englishwoman and an Egyptian nationalist set in Cairo in 1900, secrets uncovered by the woman's great-granddaughter, herself in love with an Egyptian musician living in New York. The Map of Love was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. In 2004, her book of non-fiction, Mezzaterra, was published. Her latest book is a collection of short stories, I Think of You (2007). Soueif is also a political and cultural commentator; she writes regularly for the Guardian in London and has a weekly column for al-Shorouk in Cairo. Ahdaf Soueif lives in London and Cairo.