The scream

"Messages of pessimism are an immoral act," a simple and meaningful phrase, sent by Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour to the reader through the lines of her recently published book "He Heavier Than Radwa... Excerpts from an Autobiography" - Dar Al-Shorouk, Cairo. Despite the messages of resistance and optimism that the book conveys, the owner of "Al-Tantouriya" and "Ghernata Trilogy" begins her autobiography pages with an apology to the virtual reader: "I must confess guilt for involving you in all these details... but how can I atone for my sin?" Perhaps because she was afraid of a possible reluctance to continue reading, as most of the excerpts are sad and painful, but filled with a positive energy that encourages continuing life. The autobiographer sees that life "frames death. It precedes and follows it, and imposes its boundaries. It surrounds it from above and below, and from the sides." Ashour mixes in these excerpts her experience of revolution and illness, which she has faced throughout the last three years, and reflects on the act of writing as "an attempt to restore a banished will," and talks about the university, Tahrir Square, and the martyrs, saying: "When despair visits me, I tell myself it is not right and not permissible, because I am from the party of ants, from the party of the drowning person's straw. I cling to it and never let it go from my hands." Excerpt from an interview with the author dated Tuesday, May 6, 2014