Out of Egypt

Andre Aciman wrote Out of Egypt to tell the story of his family, three generations of wealthy Jews living in Alexandria, Egypt. For decades, the Acimans would navigate the knotted cultures of their adopted homeland, before being steadily driven out by a revolutionary government. This memoir contains many stories, all interwoven in a richly embroidered tapestry. There’s the story of a country: Egypt, a land turned into an ethnic melting pot by generations of colonialism, whose subjugated Arabic people turn to anti-Semitism during their search for a national identity. It is the story of a city: Alexandria, an ancient metropolis whose sights, sounds, and smells are picked out in loving detail by Aciman. It’s the story of the family: a group of multilingual Jews who fight, flirt, brag, scheme, gossip, hate, love, and occasionally lose everything as the world changes around them. And it’s the story of a boy, Andre Aciman, who faces hate and cruelty during his childhood, but still manages to flourish in a magical stew of traditions and innovations. His relatives are eccentric and often dysfunctional, but fiercely living nonetheless. Each carefully researched fabric of this book is held together with a lush, witty voice. Aciman’s family may have been driven out of Egypt, but in the pages of this book he has made a triumphant return.