The Scream

Author: Radwa Ashour

“Messages of pessimism are an immoral act.” This simple yet profound statement is conveyed by the Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour to the reader through the pages of her recently published book, “Heavier Than Radwa… Excerpts from an Autobiography” - Dar El Shorouk. Despite the messages of resistance and optimism the book disseminates, the author of “Al-Tantouria” and “Granada Trilogy” begins her autobiography by apologizing to the hypothetical reader: “I must confess guilt for involving you in all these details, but how can I atone for my sin?” Perhaps she feared a potential disinclination to continue reading excerpts that were mostly sad and painful, yet charged with positive energy, inciting one to continue a life that the author believes frames death, precedes and follows it, and imposes its boundaries. It surrounds it from above and below, and from both sides. In these excerpts, Ashour blends the experiences of revolution and the illness she faced throughout the last three years, and reflects on the act of writing as “an attempt to reclaim an exiled will.” She speaks about the university, Tahrir Square, and the martyrs, saying: “When despair tempts me, I tell myself it is not right, it is not permissible, because I belong to the party of ants, to the party of a drowning man's straw, I cling to it and never let go.”