Circling the Square: Stories from the Egyptian Revolution

Canada: Ecco, 2015. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Through a series of stunningly rendered, character-drive vignettes, New Yor ker writer Wendell Steavenson recounts the events of the Egyptian Revolutio n-from Mubarak's fall to Morsi's. Here is the panoply of Tahrir Square, a p ointillist portrait of a people enacting and reacting to change and hope. In January 2011, when the crowds gathered to protest Mubarak's three decade s of rule in Egypt, Wendell Steavenson went to cover the events. She spent her days on Tahrir Square, among the tents and the graffiti and the tanks, watching amazed as Egyptians of every stripe came together to challenge the might of the repressive status quo. Circling the Square is the extraordinary story of the recent Egyptian Revol ution as experienced by Cairo's citizens. Steavenson takes us to the heart of the Revolution and paints indelible portraits of ordinary Egyptians grap pling with hope and change amid violence and bloodshed. Here is Bakr, a you ng man from the slums with his homemade pistol; a seasoned observer who giv es up on analysis; a leader who doesn't want to lead thrust uncomfortably i nto the spotlight; a Muslim Brotherhood politician trying to smooth over a restless parliament; and a military intelligence officer convinced that onl y the army can save Egypt. Steavenson captures the cacophony of dizzying events as violence and elections ebbed and flowed around the revolution, tipping it towards democracy and then back into the military's hands. Mixing reportage and memoir, anecdotes and inciden.