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Dying by suicide shortly after her novel, Love and Silence, was rejected for publication in 1963, Egyptian writer Enayat al-Zayyat gained brief recognition when the book was finally published four years after her death. Discovering the novel in a Cairo market some 30 years later launched acclaimed Egyptian writer Iman Mersal on a decades-long, life-altering quest to solve the many mysteries about al-Zayyat’s life, death and legacy. Mersal joins us in this episode to discuss the recent English translation of her award-winng 2019 book, Traces of Enayat, and the nexus between al-Zayyat’s story and her own. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal

How to Mend: Motherhood and Its Ghosts by Iman Mersal 

The Threshold by Iman Mersal

Love and Silence by Enayat al-Zayyat

The Open Door by Latifa al-Zayyat

The Open Door film

Egyptian Actress Nadia Lutfi

City of the Dead cemetery in Cairo

Ludwig Keimer

German Institute of Antiquities

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