Cairo-based writer and curator Sara El Adl gravitates toward books that blur the lines between politics, memory, and atmosphere. Rooted in her work around visual culture, authoritarianism, and urban space, this reading list moves between the investigative, the emotional, and the uncanny.

Inspector Imanishi investigates by Seichō Matsumoto
A quietly brilliant Japanese detective novel where a seemingly ordinary murder unravels into a layered story of class, shame, and postwar society. Slow-burning, atmospheric, and deeply human.

Burn Out: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat by Hannah Proctor
An exploration of what happens emotionally after political movements fail — examining exhaustion, grief, and disillusionment through history, psychology, and activism. Timely and surprisingly intimate.

The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher
Mark Fisher dissects the unsettling feeling of the strange and the uncanny across film, literature, and culture. A short but fascinating read for anyone drawn to the atmospheric and inexplicable.

Egypt 100+ Stories from a Century After Tahrir
A collection capturing fragments of Egyptian life, memory, and imagination a century after Tahrir. The book moves between speculative fiction, social commentary, and personal storytelling.

A Woman's Story by Annie Ernaux
Annie Ernaux reflects on the life and death of her mother with striking honesty and restraint. A powerful meditation on memory, womanhood, class, and the complexity of family relationships.

Warda by Sonallah Ibrahim
Set against the backdrop of revolutionary movements in Oman, Warda blends political history with personal narrative. Sonallah Ibrahim examines love, ideology, and the cost of resistance with sharp precision.