Nehad Selaiha searches for the healing power of theatre on the fringe of the 17th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre

Winner of the 2005 Prix Laure Bataillon for the best translated work of fiction, Le Livre des illuminations, a translation of Gamal al-Ghitany's Kitab al-tajalliyat, has refocussed French attention on the work of this leading Egyptian novelist. David Tresilian spoke to Khaled Osman, the novel's translator, in Paris

Amal Choucri Catta enjoys fables and fairytales

Making his way through heaps of Ramadan TV programmes, Mohamed El-Assyouti watches out not only for the new moon but for its incumbent satellites