CHICAGO: Discovering Egypt’s magic while basking in its warmth is Mohamed Kheir’s novel “Slipping,” the first of his four novels to be translated into English. Following Seif, a journalist who has lost his sense of purpose, and an older Egyptian man who has taken on the task of documenting Egypt’s obscure corners, Kheir’s novel delves into a dreamlike world where the line between reality and dream is blurred. Translated into English by Robin Moger, “Slipping” is about real-life tragedies that unfold in dreams, through revolutions and revelations, carried by heavy and brave hearts.
When Seif is sent on an assignment for the magazine he works for, he is introduced to Bahr, a former exile who has taken on a mission to document all of Egypt’s miracles and enchanted places. Both men move between neighborhoods in Cairo, in Alexandria, and the villages in between, and witness things and people that push them to the limits of their reality. As they descend a staircase to the Nile and watch men walk on its waters, the men begin to piece together the tragedies of their lives through the miracles and misfortunes they witness.
Beginning like a short story but quickly revealing itself to be a non-linear tale that is connected by story-like vignettes, Kheir pieces together Seif’s life through the people he meets and places he visits. Seif, with Bahr’s insights into life and his own anecdotes to cope with the mistakes he’s made, is able to look at himself in a way he has never been able to, unfolding pieces of himself he has left untouched for so long.
Kheir brilliantly weaves a tale that is well paced, sweeping through a country that has transformed as much as its people. Through the journey, his characters evolve and face their pasts and futures, rejoining their shattered selves that have carried them thus far and will carry them into the future. They are forced to explain their decisions to themselves while using the city as a conduit to understand their own misfortunes and joys. Everything is connected, and while the stories are not linear, they always move forward.
