Death of the Cloak

Author's name: Khairy Shalaby

In Egypt's villages, the abaya is not merely a garment that protects against the sun and the cold, but rather a social statement, elevating people from the common folk to the ranks of the elite. As a result, in each village, a limited number of abayas are found, barely counting the fingers of one hand. When an abacus-wearing elder dies, his abacus is inherited as part of his legacy, with brothers arguing over who will replace the deceased elder. It's like the struggle of the minorities of a nation over the throne when one of its leaders dies. What will become of the abacus legacy in a brief moment in time, between the era of Abdel Nasser and Saddam's invasion of Kuwait? Through the novel's events and novelist Khairy Shalabi's rich, humane style of characterization, we witness the transformation of the social lives of people who were accustomed to seeing the elite draped in their lavish abayas, to a time when they no longer recognized the existence of any elder.