Goodbye, Tahrir Square

""A richly-narrated, heartbreaking memoir of revolution, adolescence, and expulsion, Goodbye, Tahrir Square offers an intimate portrait of a world on the brink of transformation. Told through the eyes of a Jewish boy coming of age in the midst of a political crisis, Goodbye, Tahrir Square is a tender exploration of family, identity, and belonging that captures a pivotal moment in Middle Eastern history through the most personal of lenses.""- Michael David Lukas, author of The Last Watchman of Old Cairo ""The once vibrant Jewish life of mid-century Cairo is vividly recreated in this fabulous memoir. Growing up as an Egyptian Jew, in school with Muslims and Christians, experiencing two political revolutions, surrounded by extended family gradually emigrating, Elio Zarmati relives with us the conflicts as well as the joys of his childhood. I loved reading this book!""-- Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor, Dartmouth College ""Elegantly written, rich with detail, the genius of Goodbye, Tahrir Square is the way Elio Zarmati juxtaposes his complex struggle to reach adulthood during Egypt's turbulent attempts to create a relevant twentieth century identity. To move forward in life, Zarmati asks, how much past must you hold and cherish, and how much must you cast aside?""-- Fred Haefele, author of the memoir, Rebuilding the Indian. ""Elio Zarmati's Goodbye, Tahrir Square: Coming of Age as a Jew of the Nile is an engaging and intriguing memoir, recounting a Jewish boy's childhood and early adolescence growing up from 1949-1960 in Egypt, and then fleeing it forever with his father to escape its antisemitism. This is a well-written memoir about a sensitive, book-loving boy's emotional, intellectual, and sexual development, set in the context of familial, political, and ideological strife, and his effort to understand the world around him and his place in it. Goodbye, Tahrir Square is also an evocative, appreciative, even affectionate description of Egypt during that period, underlining poignantly the enormous loss to Zarmati, his family, and all the Egyptian Jews who were forced by antisemitism into exile. Readers will find much to enjoy and learn from this thoughtful memoir.""-- Dr. Nora Gold, author of 18: Jewish Stories Translated From 18 Languages and In Sickness and In Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym; and the Founder and Editor of the literary journal, JewishFiction.com