Book Blog Tour & Giveaway: Shahrazad’s Gift by Gretchen McCullough

SHAHRAZAD’S GIFT

by

Gretchen McCullough

Contemporary Fiction / Linked Short Stories / Humor

Publisher: Cune Press

Date of Publication: February 20, 2024

Number of Pages: 198 pages

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Shahrazad’s Gift is a collection of linked short stories set in contemporary Cairo—magical, absurd and humorous. The author focuses on the off-beat, little-known stories, far from CNN news: a Swedish belly dancer who taps into the Oriental fantasies of her clientele; a Japanese woman studying Arabic, driven mad by the noise and chaos of the city; a frustrated Egyptian housewife who becomes obsessed by the activities of her Western gay neighbor; an American journalist who covered the civil war in Beirut who finds friendship with her Egyptian dentist. We also meet the two protagonists of McCullough’s Confessions of a Knight Errant, before their escapades in that story.

These stories are told in the tradition of A Thousand and One Nights.

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5 stars!

Mesmerizing storytelling.

Shahrazad’s Gift is a collection of related stories by Gretchen McCullough, the author of Confessions of a Knight Errant (reviewed here last year). It delivers with mesmerizing storytelling tales of an insider’s view of Cairo, Egypt, and several residents. The stories vary, but each paints a picture of the human condition.

The main characters of the selections are a diverse group, and some are surprising and off-beat. While some tales boast locals, many feature foreigners in the city for work or study. One woman is a belly dancer, which is not an unusual profession for an entertainer in Egypt, I’m guessing, but this one is a foreigner named Batilda, who speaks with a British Manchester accent. Another, Keiko, is a Japanese visitor learning Arabic to teach businessmen when she returns home in a month to Japan.

Another striking characteristic of the non-locals featured is how much better off they are economically. Many have an unconscious air of privilege, which stands out even as they plan to do something nice for their maid.

One outstanding feature of all the stories is the vividness of the descriptions of the characters’ surroundings. The atmosphere is complete with sights, sounds, smells, and even weather, harmonizing into an immersive picture of life in Cairo.

I recommend SHARAZAD’S GIFT to fiction readers, especially those who like reading about a grittier slice of life.

Gretchen McCullough was raised in Harlingen Texas. After graduating from Brown University in 1984, she taught in Egypt, Turkey, and Japan. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama and was awarded a teaching Fulbright to Syria from 1997-1999. Her stories, essays and reviews have appeared in The Barcelona Review, Archipelago, National Public Radio, Story South, Guernica, The Common, The Millions, and the LA Review of Books. Translations in English and Arabic have been published in: Nizwa, Banipal, Brooklyn Rail in Translation, World Literature Today and Washington Square Review with Mohamed Metwalli. Her bi-lingual book of short stories in English and Arabic, Three Stories From Cairo, translated with Mohamed Metwalli, was published in July 2011 by AFAQ Publishing House, Cairo. A collection of short stories about expatriate life in Cairo, Shahrazad’s Tooth, was also published by AFAQ in 2013. Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric and Composition at the American University in Cairo.

Website ◆ Goodreads

American University Faculty Webpage

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GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

THREE WINNERS:
Two winners receive paperbacks.
One winner receives the eBook of Shahrazad’s Gift.
(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 4/12/24)

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