Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison - Ahmed Naji

Written by Ahmed Naji
Read by Michael Rahhal
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 80 Kbps
Unabridged

In February 2016, Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in prison for “violating public decency,” after an excerpt of his novel Using Life reportedly caused a reader to experience heart palpitations. Naji ultimately served ten months of that sentence, in a group cellblock in Cairo’s Tora Prison.

Rotten Evidence is a chronicle of those months. Through Naji’s writing, the world of Egyptian prison comes into vivid focus, with its cigarette-based economy, homemade chess sets, and well-groomed fixers. Naji’s storytelling is lively and uncompromising, filled with rare insights into both the mundane and the grand questions he confronts.

How does one secure a steady supply of fresh vegetables without refrigeration?

Write and revise a novel in a single notebook? Make a wall hook out of a razor?

Fight boredom? And, most crucially, how does one make sense of a senseless oppression: finding oneself in prison for the act of writing fiction. Genuine and defiant, this book stands as a testament to the power of the creative mind in the face of authoritarian censorship.

Translated by Katharine Halls

August 27 2024
5 hours and 24 minutes