​Taxi

Taxi

Author: Khaled Al Khamissi

Page: 245 pages

Publisher: ZI Publication

ISBN: 9789834352141

Taxi brings together 58 fictional dialogues with Cairo cabbies recreated from the author’s own experience of traversing the city. It takes the readers on a roller-coaster of emotions as bumpy and noisy as the city’s potholed and chaotic streets.

Described as an urban sociology, an ethnography, a classic of oral history and a work of poetry in motion. Taxi tells Herculean tales of the struggle for survival and dignity among Cairo’s 80,000 cab drivers. It is a wing-mirror that reflects both on modern Egypt and on the human condition, plucking from the rush-hour sandstorm a feast of memories, lies, loves hates and dreams.

Taxi was an instant bestseller in Arabic markets and has been credited with reviving an interest in reading in Egypt. This unique work explores the poignant self-reflections of members of a caste who have little in common apart from their trade.