Cairo is a behemoth with twenty million souls prone to insomnia and mayhem. Displaying this human swarm filled with stories that form the heartbeat of a megacity throughout the most dizzying decade in its recent history, this book gives us a closer look at the everyday adventure of a correspondent who lived in the city for over ten years, through a mix of his unique, surprising encounters: a regime henchman, a female taxi driver, the mother of a 9/11 terrorist, the brother of Al-Qaeda’s current leader, and an interview with President Abdelfatah al-Sisi.
Francisco Carrión is a journalist at El Independiente. Over the last decade, he was a correspondent for the newspaper El Mundo in Cairo. Since 2011, he has reported on Egypt during the most dramatic years in the history of that Arab nation. He has received some twenty awards for his efforts and chronicles, including the Young Journalist of the Year Award given by the Madrid Press Association; the Young Communication Award bestowed by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid; the Tiflos Journalism Award granted by the ONCE Foundation; the Colombine Award of the Almería Press Association; the Manuel Alcántara Award from the University of Malaga; and the Manuel Azaña Award in Alcalá de Henares. In 2021, he was selected as a finalist for the Cirilo Rodríguez Award.