Novelist Khairy Shalaby dies

Renowned novelist Khairy Shalaby. Cairo – Somayya Ibrahim The prominent Egyptian author and novelist, Khairy Shalaby, died from a heart attack this morning at the age of 73. The novelist was born on the 31st of January in 1938 in Shubas village, and has made an enormous contribution to the world of literature and media. The late novelist’s body will be buried in his hometown, Kafr al-Sheikh, with the name of the mosque yet to be announced. Shalaby’s works include the film “Al shuttar” with director Nader Jalal. Shalaby also worked on “The Happiness Thief”, with director Daoud Abdelsayed, which was based on Shalaby’s own short story, “Wakalet Ateyyeh” (The Lodging House). This story was also made into a television drama starring Hussein Fahmy in 2009. Shalaby’s other television works include the drama, “Alwatad”, with director Ahmad Al Nuhas, and “Al Kuma”, which was directed by Mohamed Radi. Shalaby’s works were translated into several languages, including Russian, Chinese, English, French, Hebrew, Italian and Urdu. Shalaby was also the subject of Masters and PhD theses completed in Cairo, Tanta, Riyadh and Oxford. He received numerous awards for this work, including the State Award of Encouragement in Arts in 1980-81, the award for the Best Arab Novel (for “Wekalet Attiya”) in 1993, the American University’s Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2003 and the State Prize for Literature in 2005. He also received a Canadian nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Shalaby’s most famous novels include “Al Sanyoora”, “Mawwal al Bait Wal Nawm”, “Thulatheyyat al Amal” (Olna Walad, Thanina Alkuma, and Thalethna Waraq), “Baghlet al Arsh”, “Lahs al Atab”, “Baten”, and “Manamat Uncle Ahmed al Sammak.” Shalaby was a pioneer of the style now knows as "magical realism." His works mostly examined marginalised communities in society.