The study of dictatorship in the West has acquired an almost exotic dimension. But authoritarian regimes remain a painful reality for billions of people worldwide, their freedoms violated and their rights abused. They are subject to arbitrary arrest, corruption and injustice.
What is the nature of dictatorship? How does it take hold? In what conditions and circumstances is it permitted to thrive? And how do dictators retain power, even when reviled and mocked by those they govern? In this deeply considered and at times provocative short word, Alaa Al Aswany shows us that – as with any disease – to understand the syndrome of dictatorship we must first consider the circumstances of its emergence, along with the symptoms and complications it cases in both the people and the dictator.
Über die Autorin / über den Autor:Alaa Al Aswany was born in 1957. A dentist by profession, he is the author of the bestselling novels The Yacoubian Building, Chicago, The Autombile Club of Egypt, the novella and short story collection Friendly Fire and the 2011 non-fiction work On the State of Egypt. His work has been translated into 37 languages and published in over 100 countries. Al Aswany was named by The Times as one of the best 50 authors to have been translated into English in the last 50 years.
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