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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2016 41 This Week Egyptian writer Basma Abdel Aziz to participate at the Malta Book Festival 2016 THIS year's edition of the Malta Book Festival will be hosting Egyp- tian writer Basma Abdel Aziz, the author of the acclaimed novel The Queue. Abdel Aziz will be appearing twice during the festival – as a guest speaker at the conference entitled 'Literature and Totalitari- anism', which will open the festival on Wednesday 9 November, and once more at an event in her hon- our the following day. On Thurs- day, she will be talking to Maltese- Palestinian writer Walid Nahban about her work and her life, with selected readings from The Queue. The Queue, Basma's debut novel, explores the scenario of the after- math of a failed revolution in an undefined Arab country. The nar- rative unfolds around the 'queue' – an endless line of civilians wait- ing to petition an impersonal ad- ministrative entity called The Gate for basic services. The 'gate' is said to be a powerful symbol for Arab readers, who associate it imme- diately with 'La Porte', the gates of the administrative wing of the Sultan's Topkapi palace in Istan- bul. This is reportedly the focus of Ottoman power which dominated the Arab peoples for more than four centuries, and is a symbol of distant and faceless administra- tion. The novel draws comparisons to classics of dystopian literature such as The Trial by Franz Kafka and Blindness by Jose Saramago, and is highly representative of the new wave of Middle Eastern writ- ers, who seemingly try to come to terms with the social and political vacuum, the disappointing and chaotic aftermath of the Arab Up- risings of 2011. Abdel Aziz, a Cairo resident, born in 1976, holds a Master's de- gree in Neuropsychiatry from Ein Shams University and is a member of El Nadeem Centre For the Re- habilitation of Victims of Violence and a member of the Egyptian Women Writers' Association. She is also a human rights activist and has written extensively on the subjects of free elections, the right to physical integrity and safety, and the independence of public educa- tional entities. For more information about the Festival one can visit the of- ficial website at: http://ktieb.org. mt/?page_id=137 Alternatively, one can view the Fa- cebook event: https://www.facebook. com/events/1951963831697045/ The Queue, Basma's debut novel, explores the scenario of the aftermath of a failed revolution Basma Abdel Aziz