Traces of Enayat

Iman Mersal's first prose book — translated from Arabic by Robin Moger — is a genre-defying investigation into the life of Egyptian novelist Enayat al-Zayyat (1936–1963), who died by suicide after publishing a single novel. Moving between Cairo neighbourhoods, libraries, and her own memories of reading, Mersal reconstructs a forgotten life with the methods of detective, biographer, and essayist. It jointly won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography in 2023.