Overview

In January 2011, as the crowds gathered to protest Mubarak's three decades of rule in Egypt, Wendell Steavenson went to Cairo to cover the story. But the revolution defied historical precedent, and it defied the templates of storytelling. There was no single villain, no lone hero, no neat conclusion that wouldn't be overturned the next day. Tahrir Square changed its moods like the weather; fickle, violent, hopeful, carnival. As she walks among the tents and the tanks, falling into conversation, sharing cigarettes and cold soda, Steavenson tells the story of a seismic historical moment as it is experienced by ordinary citizens. Here, we meet a young man from the slums with his homemade pistol; a seasoned observer who gives up on analysis; a leader who doesn't want to lead thrust uncomfortably into the spotlight; a Muslim Brotherhood politician trying to smooth over a restless parliament; and a military intelligence officer convinced that only the army can save Egypt. Steavenson captures the cacophony of dizzying events as protests and elections ebbed and flowed around the revolution, tipping it towards democracy and then back into the military's hands. Mixing reportage and travelogue, Circling the Square shows how the particular and the personal can illuminate more universal questions: what does democracy mean? What happens when a revolution throws everything up in the air?

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9780062375261

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Few books are better than this one at conveying the confusion and excitement of those days on the square. --New York Times Book Review Steavenson weaves together a mosaic portrait that tightly focuses on the people...of the revolution. --Minneapolis Star Tribune [Steavenson] creates a vibrant sense of being on the ground in Cairo... --Los Angeles Times There is much to praise in her evocative, impressionistic sketches of the stirring events in Egypt...Her actual writing is first-rate. She cares deeply about her subjects but her critical acuity and keen sense of humor see through their foibles and contradictions. --Washington Times A moving, empathetic portrayal of a central movement of our time: the brave Egyptian people's attempt to end repression without the tools or the leaders to succeed. --Library Journal Impassioned coverage from the front lines of a historic Middle Eastern uprising... An intensive firsthand exploration of modern Egyptian liberation and solidarity. --Kirkus

There is much to praise in her evocative, impressionistic sketches of the stirring events in Egypt Her actual writing is first-rate. She cares deeply about her subjects but her critical acuity and keen sense of humor see through their foibles and contradictions. --Washington Times

Author Information

Wendell Steavenson wrote for The New Yorker from Cairo for more than a year during the Egyptian revolution. She has spent most of the past decade and a half reporting from the Middle East and the Caucasus for the Guardian, Prospect magazine, Slate, Granta and other publications. Steavenson has written two previous books, both critically acclaimed: Stories I Stole, about post-Soviet Georgia, and The Weight of a Mustard Seed, about life and morality in Saddam's Iraq and the aftermath of the American invasion. She was also a 2014 Nieman Fellow at Harvard. Steavenson currently lives in Paris.

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