Heavier than Radwa

Book title: Heavier than Radwa Author: Radwa Ashour Publisher: Dar Al-Shorouk Genre: Novels Page count: 393 About the book: An expert in disguise or a complex personality in which creation gathers contradictions and opposites? After a few days, I will turn sixty-seven, I have spent four decades of them teaching at the university, some of those I have taught have become professors with students. No, dear reader, I will not review my achievements before finishing the book, but I try to answer the question I posed in the first paragraph. You will not notice that I am sixty-seven, not because aging does not show on my features yet, nor because if you knock on my door now, a relatively small woman wearing simple clothes will open for you, her short childish hair, though mostly white, is almost overshadowed by her black hair. It is not just for these reasons, but because the woman, and I mean Radwa, as soon as she finds the street relatively empty, she starts kicking any small stone she encounters with her right foot, again and again, trying to take it as far as possible. She does like any ten-year-old shopkeeper boy who compensates for the boredom of endless trips delivering orders to homes and for the desire to play that is unavailable because he works all day. The game captivates her, and she does not stop until she notices a passerby staring at her in amazement. Radwa Ashour mixes in these passages from her autobiography scenes from the revolution and her experience in facing illness over the past three years, linking them to previous and earlier years. She talks about the university, Tahrir, and the martyrs, about herself, and reflects on the act of writing.