A country in crisis

Jack Shenker is a throwback to an older, more romantic age when foreign correspondents were angry, partisan and half-crazed with frustration at the stupidity of the powerful. He made his name in Egypt, arriving with nothing more than a desire to be a reporter. As the revolution began, he moved to Tahrir Square and started to publish stories in the Guardian. He soon began to win awards, notably for a piece on the deaths of African migrants in the Mediterranean. He has continued to report around the world, but his first love remains Cairo. The Egyptians, his first book, is fuelled by anger and frustration. Shenker was there at the dawn of the revolution, lived through the disappointment of the Muslim Brotherhood’s election victory, and is now a witness to the counter-revolution that brought the brutish Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to power.

There is plenty of reason to be angry in post-revolutionary Egypt. About the only person who still lauds the coup is Tony Blair, who Shenker finds working with Sir Martin Sorrel’s WPP to rebrand the latest dictator-led Egypt. Since seizing power, the generals have outlawed political parties, cancelled elections, sent every notable revolutionary to the organised rape centres that double as prisons in Egypt, and are now presiding over a total economic collapse. Shenker wants to find light in this tunnel and argues that the spirit of resistance has not been crushed. He points to graffiti artists, techno DJs who play the local style known as magharanat, volunteers who combat sexual abuse at demos and an online debate forum, Salafyo Costa, which could be translated as Salafists Enjoying Coffee. Shenker recognises his examples are quite slim, however, and the book is coloured by lost hope.