BOOKS
Room 304: How I Hid from My Beloved Father for 35 Years | Ghorfa 304
This memoir that tells the story of the author’s relationship
with his father, the patriarchal figure that many Egyptians live
with. It looks at how the father figure sees himself as a divine
being, and the resulting conflicts that arise between son and
father. In the memoir, fatherhood is seen as a debt that the
son has to pay throughout his life.
The tone of voice is not always critical in the book, however:
for example, the perfect version of Amr refuses to submit to
his rebellious character, because he enjoys how proud his
father is of him. The memoir also attempts to come to peace
with the notion of ‘hiding’ behind lies, where the son is lying,
and the father knows he is lying, giving us a general sense of
tension in the air.
“The book encompasses different layers of my relationship
with my father. I believe that the experience of fatherhood
itself changes fathers, even if they think their sons are the only
ones being shaped,” writes Ezzat.
Amr Ezzat
Amr Ezzat is an Egyptian writer born in 1980. He studied
engineering and philosophy at Cairo University. He worked
as an engineer, then as a journalist, and currently works as
a researcher on religious freedom and writes for several
newspapers and websites.
He has published two books. His memoir Room 304: How I
Hid from My Beloved Father for 35 Years is available in Arabic
and English, as is How to Remember your Dreams, published
in 2020.
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