Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan, translated by Jonathan Wright – review

Egyptian Coptic church has been upset by the novel’s portrayal of St Cyril. Maya Jaggi 4/5/2012 Even before Azazeel won the International Prize for Arabic fiction (or “Arabic Booker”) in 2009, copies of the novel were piled high at Cairo’s pavement booksellers. Its unusual setting in early Christian, pre-Islamic Egypt fuelled interest, along with its teasing literary frame, whereby an archaeologist in late 20th-century Syria uncovers 30 confessional scrolls penned by an Egyptian monk some 1,500 years before.