What I Know About You

Starred review from July 1, 2024
Tarek is an established neurosurgeon who operates a charity clinic in a Cairo slum once a week. There he meets nineteen-year-old Ali, a young sex worker. When a kiss between the two of them leaves Tarek obsessed, he hires Ali to be his assistant at his regular practice. They begin an affair, but when word gets around that Tarek's employing a boy of "dubious virtue," his practice begins to suffer. Alarmed, Tarek's mother secretly pays the boy to pretend to drown in the Nile. Believing the lie, Tarek is devastated and emigrates to Montreal, leaving his estranged wife behind. To this point the story has been told in the second person by an unknown narrator, who is now revealed: it's the teenage son Tarek doesn't know he has. The boy's attempt to meet his father fails when Tarek, back in Cairo for his mother's funeral, learns that Ali's death was a lie and decides to find him. Will Tarek succeed and will Rafik get to meet his father? A splendid exercise in melancholy and heartbreak with highly empathetic characters, Chacour's first novel is beautifully written and superbly translated from the French by Pablo Strauss. It is not to be missed.

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Starred review from September 1, 2024
The slow-burn story of Tarek, a Levantine Christian doctor whose life seems prescribed for him in every matter, even love. As the book opens during Tarek's boyhood in 1960s Cairo, an omniscient speaker says: "You were of an age to have no life plans beyond what others devised for you. Was it really just a matter of age, though?" The use of "you" throughout the first section creates a distinct separation between Tarek and the speaker, but there's still a sense of intimacy. The speaker seems to know and deeply feel everything they write about Tarek's life. Questions of who this speaker is, and whether it could be Tarek himself, hover over a good portion of the novel. Point of view plays an essential role in how the story unfolds over the course of three sections, titled "You," "Me," and "Us." Tarek follows the path expected of him. He becomes a successful doctor with a practice in Dokki and a clinic in Mokattam, and he gets married. "In the Armenian tradition, it fell to your wife's mother to welcome you into your new home. She offered you a spoonful of honey with nuts, to wish you a sweet life. The spell lasted barely a year." Tarek's daily routine is shaken when he meets Ali, who arrives at the clinic seeking help for his mother. The initial medical appointment turns into many visits Tarek pays to Ali and his mother, which now include dinner and conversation. Ali's mother, whose health has deteriorated, asks Tarek to let Ali work at the clinic. He agrees, and the bond between Ali and Tarek becomes even stronger. Then everything changes for Tarek in a moment: "You were like a child who seizes a momentary lapse in their parent's attention to open a box of matches. The child doesn't know when exactly it will happen, or what kind of fire they will spark. But they understand the possibility, however remote." As they so often do, the speaker adeptly locates a metaphor for the situation and the feelings that result. Chacour's exceptional restraint in divulging information lets the tension build, carrying the book into the revelation of who is writing Tarek's story. All the author's formal risks result in well-earned rewards.

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