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Certainly a must-read for anyone interested in Ghali's work and perhaps of wider interest. --Marcia Lynx Qualey, Arabic Literature (in English) Waguih Ghali's widely acclaimed novel Beer in the Snooker Club has become a classic of Arabic literature. Ghali, like other once marginalized authors and artists, has become an intellectual reference in and outside the Arab world for current attempts to re-articulate the terms of the debate on culture, nation, and the world in times of painful transition from an old order to something unknown. The publication of his diaries is an important contribution to this endeavor, for it enables us to learn more about the author and his context. Ghali was a non-conformist socialist, a political dissenter, an avant-garde figure, haunted by alienation, depression, nostalgia, and by being a little too fond of the good life, and by contradictions that still mark our times. --Georges Khalil, Forum Transregionale Studien The diaries give us a clearer picture of Ghali and the nature of his life in exile, and help to correct some misconceptions about him. They constitute an important document of confession in which we can trace and reflect on the difficulties of writing and the alienation of a writer who lost his home in his childhood and his country in his youth. --Iman Ali, al-Hayat Meticulously edited by May Hawas. . . . The diaries cover, and shed much light on, the last four years of Ghali's life as well as, through reminiscences, aspects of his youth. --Paul K Lyons, The Diary Review The author clearly imagines-or at least hopes-the diary will one day be published in book form. As he hopes it, he also worries that we, who will read his once-private thoughts, will laugh at him. 'This, to me, is one of the cruelest things I am experiencing.' He needn't have agonized over this. While a reader who admires Beer in the Snooker Club might be disappointed at the Diaries' very different tone, it would take a stone-hearted reader to laugh at the author's suffering. --Marcia Lynx Qualey, Qantara.de

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May Hawas received her PhD in literature from Leuven University in 2014. In addition to her editorial experience she has worked in various NGOs concerned with women's issues and youth employment. Some of her short stories have been published in Mizna Journal, Yellow Medicine, and African Writing. She currently teaches English literature at the University of Alexandria.

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