In the Spider's Room

Hani was out for an evening stroll near Cairo’s Tahrir Square when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder. An informant had identified him, and he was thrown into the back of a police truck. There began a seven-month nightmare as he was swept up, along with fifty other men, in the infamous Queen Boat affair that targeted Egypt’s gay community.

Finally free, but traumatized into speechlessness, Hani writes down the events of his life—his first sexual desires, his relationship with his mother, his marriage of convenience, and his passion for Abdel Aziz, the only man he ever truly loved.

In the Spider’s Room is a sensitive and courageous account of life as a gay man in Egypt.

© 2018 Hoopoe (Ebook): 9781617978920

Translators: Jonathan Wright

Release date

Ebook: 4 October 2018