The smell of dissent
Sonallah Ibrahim's elaborately staged refusal of an award presented at the second Novelists Conference overshadowed the appearance of his latest novel, Amrikanli. Ibrahim speaks to Youssef Rakha about fiction, politics and what it means to be an Arab writer

A flapping of wings
Fish, flesh and fowl: well, only the latter on Saturdays, finds Amal Choucri Catta

Plain Talk
The Adventure of English: Biography of a Language, a new book by Melvin Bragg, has just appeared in London...
By Mursi Saad El-Din

Multicoloured blueprints
Sonali Pahwa attends an exhibition that intends to help its young refugee participants adjust to life in Egypt