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.

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Like The Thousand and One Nights collection from which this anthology was patterned, Shahrazad’s Gift is a highly entertaining read.

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The interconnected stories are varied. Some are funny, some are sad, and some are both in equal measure. All of them are evocative, always eliciting a reaction from me–laughter and sympathy being the most common. They feature a fascinating cast of multinational characters that are drawn so vividly, they seem like real people. And they all take me to the streets of Cairo, Egypt, fulfilling my goal of traveling through books.

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While the tone is easy and most often light, there’s an underlying depth to the themes that’ll make you think, make you reflect, and maybe want to read it all over again.

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Having read Ms. McCullough’s previous work Confessions of a Knight Errant, I was not surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. It has the same cinematic quality, sharp dialogues, irreverent situations, even more quirky characters, and utter craveability. Recommended for everyone who appreciates unique and excellent storytelling.

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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.

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