Mystery set in THAILAND / DARTMOOR / SWEDEN
A saga of 20th Century EGYPT
28th July 2026
The Lady of Zamalek by Ashraf El-Ashmawi, a saga of 20th Century Egypt.
TR: by Peter Daniel.
Ashraf El-Ashmawi’s The Lady of Zamalek is an ambitious historical novel that uses a real-life true crime as a post on which to build a sweeping epic of modern Egyptian history.
The story starts in the spring of 1927 with the shocking, real-life murder, during a burglary, of prominent businessman Solomon Cicurel in his luxury villa in Cairo’s affluent Zamalek district. While history records the rapid arrest of four suspects, El-Ashmawi introduces a fictional fifth accomplice: Abbas. Escaping with stolen documents that he believes will unlock a hidden fortune, Abbas hatches a plan to infiltrate the upper echelons of society. He begins by placing his sister, Zeinab, as a servant to Cicurel’s grieving widow, Paula. From these beginnings, a rags-to-riches saga unfolds.
What makes The Lady of Zamalek so mesmerising is how it binds the shifting fates of its characters to the turbulent evolution of Egypt itself. Spanning from the 1920s to the 1990s, the story goes through major historical milestones, including World War II, the 1952 revolution, the rise of Nasser, the 1967 war, and the subsequent Sadat and Mubarak eras. Through the changing political tides, Abbas and Zeinab climb the social ladder through ruthless manipulation, greed, and some casual brutality, in effect becoming members of the elite they once served (and despised).
The novel is told through the voices of the different characters – alternating between Abbas, Zeinab, and later, Abbas’s daughter Nadia. This multi-generational approach shows a complex web of perspectives on wealth, class, and morality. While the sheer number of time shifts and characters can sometimes confuse, the psychological depth of the characters nevertheless shines through.
The Lady of Zamalek is a blend of noir fiction, family drama, and political history. It is a sharp, pretty unvarnished portrait of how corruption and ambition can mirror the grand transformations of a nation. I learnt a lot about Egypt of the 20th Century.
Tony for the TripFiction Team
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