Bahā’ Ṭāhir, Wāḥat al-ġurūb (L'oasi del tramonto), Dār al-Šurūq, al-Qāhirah 2007, pp. 345

Book review. Bahā’ Ṭāhir, Wāḥat al-ġurūb (Sunset Oasis). Cairo, Dār al-Šurūq, 2007. Winner of the 2008 Arabic Booker Prize (IPAF). Sixth novel of Egyptian writer Bahā’ Ṭāhir (b. 1935). The story takes place after the British invasion of Egypt in 1882 and it is mostly set in Siwa oasis, where a police officer from Cairo is sent to work as a district chief mainly in charge of collecting taxes from the local popolation for the central government. This transfer is a punishment inflicted on him by the British authorities who regard him as a supporter of the 1882 nationalist revolt .He is married with an Irish woman who shares his resentments towards Great Britain. In Siwa, he and his wife both face hostility from the conservative local population. He eventually sinks into an existential crisis as his marriage collapses. Through the experience of the Egyptian protagonist married to a European woman, the author explores East-West relations. Bahā’ Ṭāhir condemns both Western imperialism and Eastern conservativism.