Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison

by Ahmed Naji Narrated by Not Yet Available

Overview

A 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
In February 2016, Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in prison for "violating public modesty," after an
excerpt of his novel Using Life reportedly caused a reader to experience heart palpitations. Naji ultimately
served ten months of that sentence, in a group cell block in Cairo's Tora Prison.
Rotten Evidence is a chronicle of those months. Through Naji's writing, the world of Egyptian prison comes
into vivid focus, with its cigarette-based economy, home-made chess sets, and well-groomed fixers. Naji's
storytelling is lively and uncompromising, filled with rare insights into both the mundane and grand questions
he confronts.
How does one secure a steady supply of fresh vegetables without refrigeration? How does one write and revise
a novel in a single notebook? Fight boredom? Build a clothes hanger? Negotiate with the chief of intelligence?
And, most crucially, how does one make sense of a senseless oppression: finding oneself in prison for the act
of writing fiction. Genuine and defiant, this book stands as a testament to the power of the creative mind, in the
face of authoritarian censorship.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

08/07/2023

In this searing memoir, Egyptian journalist and novelist Naji (Seven Lessons Learned from Ahmed Makky) shares his experiences in prison after his writings were deemed offensive to public morality. In 2014, an Egyptian literary magazine published a section of Naji’s second novel, Using Life, which led to a complaint from a reader that the excerpt made him physically ill. That complaint, in turn, led to a criminal investigation, and charges that Naji’s writings were a “malicious violation of the sanctity of morals.” Naji was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to two years in prison; he served 10 months before being resentenced to a fine and allowed to leave the country. Here, he provides a blunt, detailed account of his months behind bars (“Once you arrive in prison, you never know when they’ll let you piss”) that sees him learning to mollify guards, playing chess with pieces made from carved soap, and—on several occasions—nearly starving. “Like anybody who gives a shit about the public good in Egypt, I expected to go to prison at some point,” he jokes in one passage, but his humor doesn’t diminish the impact of this harrowing account. In lucid prose undergirded by righteous anger, he delivers a moving testament to the power of free expression. It’s tough to forget.(Oct.)

Library Journal

09/22/2023

In this engrossing memoir, Egyptian journalist Naji shares his nearly yearlong experience in a Cairo prison after his conviction for violating public decency through his novel The Use of Life. Though he is housed with other nonviolent offenders, conditions are nevertheless harsh and difficult. Naji tells his story in a nonchronological fashion, and he interweaves descriptions about his time in prison with tales from his childhood, early career, trial, and appeals. While in prison, he passes the time primarily by reading. He has access to the prison library, but he is also allowed to receive books from visitors, although the prison authorities use their power to dole them out to him slowly. Through reading, Naji is able to sustain himself during his prison term, devouring not only classics by Egyptian authors (Naguib Mahfouz, for example) but also a variety of Western literature. Eventually, Naji comes to see himself as a writer, not just a journalist. VERDICT A well-written and thoroughly absorbing memoir. Naji gives readers an understanding of the Egyptian justice system and the risks taken by anyone who might challenge it, even inadvertently.—Rebecca Mugridge

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192693377
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	08/27/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged