Cairo Rations: The memoir that inspired a novel

This is a free downloadable book from smashwords.

It is a recently written collection of essays on the authors time in Cairo in 1973, where he had recently arrived as a student for continued Arabic language lessons, which were curtailed by the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War (Egypt & Syria led Arab states against Israel).

The book consists of nine essays written by the author as a memory jog and research into a novel set in the same location and era. They cover various topics from a trip to Alexandria on a ferry, various people the author met in his time in Cairo, the awareness (or lack thereof) of the outbreak of war, the authors brief introduction to the University (before it was closed during the war), being provided with foreigner's rations, and others.

They are well written and short essays, readable and informative.

Three stars for me.