Ibrahim Farghali

As a literary critic, Farghali has been the quickest to dismiss such middle-brow, best-selling "phenomena" as Alaa Al-Aswany's The Yacoubian Building; and his principal argument against such books is that they pander to a growing but limited—and limiting—worldwide market, that "they are not novels at all, but illusions".

Farghali by contrast dwells in the realm of quiet tones – and does so without compromise. A state-run publisher demanded that he remove all sexual overtones from his manuscript for "The Ghosts of Feelings" before publishing it. But since that was out of the question for Farghali, he has no choice but to put up with the vagaries and lack of professionalism of the few remaining independent Egyptian literary publishers. He was just 24 years old when as a fledgling journalist he interviewed Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz. His yearning for literature had become so overpowering that, just one year after completing his unloved course of studies in his small hometown of Mansoura, he moved to the big city of Cairo. In his works to date, Ibrahim Farghali has explored a variety of themes. In the short-story collection (Ashbah Al Hawas) "The Ghosts of Feelings" he attempts to explore the relationship between Egyptian men and women, who come from utterly disparate backgrounds. Again and again, he tells the same story, but from a different perspective. By doing so, Farghali is trying to demonstrate how limited our understanding of people really is. Farghali configures the female body as a site of contradiction that creates chances for proximity and/or estrangement. Even when metamorphosed it does not represent an element of mystery but is taken as a given. He uses the fantastic to uncover moral degeneration in inhibited social relationships based on fantasy-bonds.

7- Abnaa' Al Gabalawi (Sons of Gabalwi)a novel. Published by Al Ain Publishing house - Cairo 2009, 2010.

5- Jenneya Fi Qarora (Jennie in a Bottle), a novel, Al Ain publishing house 2007, 2009.

6- Midad Al Hewar (dialogue Ink) a travel book about Stuttgart in Germany as a part from the project (Town Chronicles funded by Goethe Institute). Published by Al Ain Publishing house in 2006.

4- The Smiles of the Saints Ibtisamat Al Qideiseen. 2004, 2005,2006( translated into English by Andy Smart and Nadya Fouda Smart, published by Auc Press in 2007).

2-Kahf Al Farashat (Cave of Butterflies) Cairo 1998 . a novel.

1-Bettejah Al Ma'aqi (toward the eyes) Sharqeyyat 1997, a short story collection.

Ibrahim Farghali (إبراهيم فرغلي; born 19 September 1967 in Mansoura, Egypt) is an Egyptian writer. He grew up in Oman and United Arab Emirates. He obtained a BA in Business Administration from Mansoura University in 1992 and worked as a journalist in Rose al Yousef weekly magazine, then in Nizwa magazine in Muscat - Sultanate of Oman before going back to Cairo again to work as a cultural editor in Al Ahram newspaper since 1997. Now he is an editor in Al Arabi monthly magazine in Kuwait.