winner Stories Novels & Drama
Seventh Circle 2000-2001

• Born in Al Sharqiya, Egypt, 1937
• BA in Commerce, 1960
• Worked at the Central Audit Authority
• Editor-in-Chief of Aswat magazine published in Cairo by the General Authority of Culture Palaces
• Published his first story in 1962 after he won the first prize in story writing from Story Club
• Most of his works were translated into foreign languages including French, English and Italian
• Won the Best Novel Award in the Cairo Book Fair, 1994, for his The Roar of the Lake

 Decision of the General Secretariat   

His works are distinguished by his condensed narratives, style and meaning of his works. He takes social, psychological and political experiences, highlighting the essentials and depicting them in an imaginary poetic structure.

Al Bassati is a man of gestures, symbols, invisible colours and swift hints and all these require the presence and contribution of the reader.

 Famous Works

• Seniors and Juniors
• A Talk from the Third Floor
• This Is What Happened
• Dreams of Short-lived Men
• The River’s Cave
• Useless Faint Light
• The Trader and the Painter
• The Glass Coffee-Shop
• Hard Times
• Houses Beyond the Trees
• The Roar of the Lake
• Once at a Sunset
• Voices of the Night
• And Then Comes the Train
• Other Nights