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The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit

My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World

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The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit

By: Lucette Lagnado
Narrated by: Joyce Bean
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About this listen

“Poignant . . . deeply personal . . . an indelible history of the largely forgotten Jews of Egypt . . . ”—Miami Herald

In vivid and graceful prose, Lucette Lagnado re-creates the majesty and cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years before Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rise to power. With Nasser’s nationalization of Egyptian industry, her father, Leon, a boulevardier who conducted business in his white sharkskin suit, loses everything, and departs with the family for any land that will take them. The poverty and hardships they encounter in their flight from Cairo to Paris to New York are strikingly juxtaposed against the beauty and comforts of the lives they left behind.

An inversion of the American dream set against the stunning portraits of three world cities, Lucette Lagnado’s memoir offers a grand and sweeping story of faith, tradition, tragedy, and triumph.

 Egypt Middle East Women World Africa
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I absolutely love this book! my mother's family lived in Egypt and I never really knew what it would have been like. I understood so much from the characters. the story rolls on at an excellent pace with so much detail. you can smell Cairo and see the colours. one of my favourite ever books. a big thank you to the author for writing it

A wonderful family history

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This wonderful. personal memoir resonates across countries, cultures, faiths and through the decades. Beautiful! An insight into Egypt past and present.

More than a personal memoir

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Incredibily powerful, brought back to life my family's memories. It is in many senses the story of many Jews who had to leave Egypt. Moving, clever, superbly told.

Amazing trip through memories

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For anybody who has had to leave the place of their birth to be transplanted into a completely different culture this story will strike a chord. It is a form of grieving for a culture lost and never to be restored.

Moving story of a family uprooted

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