The man in the white sharkskin suit : my family's exodus from Old Cairo to the New World / Lucette Lagnado.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lagnado, Lucette.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lagnado, Lucette.

Jews--Egypt--Cairo--Biography.

Jews.

Jews, Egyptian--New York (State)--Biography.

Jews, Egyptian.

Cairo (Egypt)--Biography.

Cairo (Egypt).

Egypt--Cairo.

New York (State).

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Biographies.

Biography.

Physical Description:

xii, 340 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Ecco, [2007]

Summary:

Lagnado re-creates the cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years between World War II and Nasser's rise to power. Her father, Leon, was a boulevardier who conducted business in his signature white sharkskin suit on the elegant terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, and later, in the cozy, dark bar of the Nile Hilton. But with the fall of King Farouk, Leon and his family lose everything. As streets are renamed, neighborhoods of their fellow Jews disbanded, and the city purged of foreign influence, the Lagnados, too, must make their escape. With all of their belongings packed into 26 suitcases, their jewels and gold coins hidden in sealed tins of marmalade, Leon and his family depart for any land that will take them. The poverty and hardships they encounter in their flight from Cairo to Paris to New York are strikingly juxtaposed against the beauty and comforts of the lives they left behind.--From publisher description.

Contents:

A courtship in Cairo

Spring 1943

The Captain : Cairo, 1942-1963. The days and nights of the Captain

The seasons of apricots

The lost uncle

The last days of Tarboosh

The prisoner of Malaka Nazli street

The essence of a name

Alexandra in the promised land

The Arabic lesson

The lament of the rose petal vendors

The cure for cat scratch fever

The wayward daughter

Last call at the dark bar

The exile : Paris, and then New York, 1963-1982. The jewel within

The missing birthday

The english lesson

The wrath of Sylvia Kirschner

The Hebrew lesson

The ballad of the tie salesman

Waiting for Elijah

The Captain at war

The house of prayer

Olives

The guardian of the orphans of Jerusalem

Psalms for my father.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 338-340).

Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, Winner, 2008

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Altemus fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780060822125

0060822120

OCLC:

77476406

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description