God Dies By the Nile (Paperback)

~ Nawal El Saadawi (Author), Sherif Hetata (Translator) "Before the crimson rays of dawn touched the treetops, before the cry of the cock, the bark of a dog, or the bray of a..." (more)
Key Phrases: Sheikh Hamzawi, Haj Ismail, Kafr El Teen (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Nawal El Saadawi writes with a directness and passion.' - New York Times Book Review

Product Description

Nawal el Saadawi's classic tale attempts to square Islam with a society in which women are respected as equals is as relevant today as ever.

'People have become corrupt everywhere. You can search in vain for Islam, or a devout Muslim. They no longer exist.'

Kafr El Teen is a beautiful, sleepy village on the banks of the Nile. Yet at its heart it is tyrannical and corrupt. The Mayor, Sheikh Hamzawi of the mosque, and the Chief of the Village Guard are obsessed by wealth and use and abuse the women of the village, taking them as slaves, marrying them and beating them. Resistance, it seems, is futile. Zakeya, an ordinary villager, works in the fields by the Nile and watches the world, squatting in the dusty entrance to her house, quietly accepting her fate. It is only when her nieces fall prey to the Mayor that Zakeya becomes enraged by the injustice of her society and possessed by demons. Where is the loving and peaceful God in whom Zakeya believes?

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Product Details

• Paperback: 138 pages
• Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.; This Beautiful edition (January 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0862322952
• ISBN-13: 978-0862322953
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #870,017 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Egyptian "Uncle Tom's Cabin", July 19, 2004

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

"God Dies by the Nile," a novel by Nawal El Saadawi, focuses on the Egyptian town of Kafr El Teen. As the story opens we meet Zakeya, an agricultural laborer who is working the soil by the Nile River. We soon meet her family of poor peasants, as well as the privileged ruling class of the village; the lives of these groups are intertwined in disturbing ways.

A note about the author tells that she was born in a village on the banks of the Nile and eventually became a doctor, and that her books have been banned. This book reminded me a lot of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the classic American novel of social protest. In "God Dies" Saadawi deals with socioeconomic oppression, the sexual exploitation of women, and the intermingling of religion and politics.

"God Dies" is full of fascinating characters. There is Metwalli, seen by some as a holy man and by others as an idiot; also memorable is Fatheya, the strong-willed wife of the leader of the village mosque. The interpersonal conflicts and relationships of the characters are very compelling, and are punctuated by some biting dialogue. Saadawi's vivid language has a powerful appeal to the senses; I could really imagine myself being immersed in the sights, sounds, and smells of this world.

At times the multiple storylines made the novel feel a bit disjointed, but ultimately Saadawi's craftsmanship gives the book a powerful unity and balance. This is a vivid and well-written portrait of human cruelty and corruption. As a companion text I recommend "The Villagers," by Jorge Icaza.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pleasurable, if slow., May 5, 2003

By	Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Nawal el Saadawi, God Dies by the Nile (Zed, 1974)

Nawal el Saadawi, Egyptian doctor, feminist, and activist, has written close to thirty books, spent time in prison for being a subversive, and for more than forty years has been a leader of progressive thinking in Egypt. So why is she almost unknown in America? Im not entirely sure anyone can answer that question completely. Better to just try and correct the problem.

God Dies by the Nile, originally published in Egypt in 1974, is the story of a family living across the street from the mayor of the peasant village of Kafr el Teen, along the banks of the Nile. We learn early on that the Mayor is a nasty fellow, and with his three cronies (the village doctor, the Captain of the Guard, and the head of the mosque), he controls all the power in the village. Needless to say, he uses this power for the most corrupt of ends.

Zakeya is the titular head of the family across the street. Four years ago, her son Galal went off to fight at Suez, and has never been heard from again. Her brother, a widower, and his two daughters, Nefissa and Zeinab, live with Zakeya. The four of them work in the fields, as does everyone else in the village, until a summons comes from the Mayor: if Nefissa will work in his house as a maid, he will pay the family an almost unimaginable sum per month. Nefissa goes. All this happens before the beginning of the story (but its better than doing the synopsis on the back of the Zed paperback, which is truly a synopsisright up to the final chapter, a spoiler extraordinaire). After Nefissa runs away, the Mayor becomes taken with Zeinab, and the whole painful cycle begins again.

God Dies by the Nile is worth reading to the American reader for the same reasons as most other African novels: to get a sense of how similar we are in our cultures despite the various differences in them. Apart from that, while the writing is a tad on the clunky side (this could easily be a problem of translation rather than the original work), the book, which clocks in at a slight 108 pages, is an easy and somewhat compelling read in the vein of classical metatragedy (meta- in that the agents of tragedy here are human, and thus the protagonists can do something about them). El Saadawis characters are wonderfully drawn, for the most part, and the differences in culture mean little when characters are drawn in this detail; you get a feel for the body language of the characters, and what it means, even if it is unfamiliar to you. In this is the books largest weakness; el Saadawi is so excellent at drawing these characters and showing us their feelings and motivations that when she reiterates them explicitly, shes redoing a job shes already done very well, and so the book tends to slow with repetition now and again. Still, that makes it no less pleasurable, if a story this tragic can be in any way pleasurable. ***

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a poetic description of hopelessness, March 19, 2006

By	Jeane FREER "Spiritual Counsellor" (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This is a beautifully written, and sensitively translated, portrait of the utter oppression and near-hopelessness of Egyptian peasant life in the mid-1970's when the book was first written. El Saadawi is a powerful voice for the Egyptian underclass, having grown up in a village along the Nile and risen to become a doctor. Her books have periodically been banned but she continues to write. Hers is a voice we should be aware of. A short book, with a compelling story, it is an 'easy' read. I took it along as holiday reading during my first visit to Egypt, and it definitely helped me to make some sense of what I was seeing as I cruised down the river.