Cairo, Egypt, where I grew up, is the setting of my book, The Immigrants' Daughter. It is a very hospitable country and it opened its doors wide to the Armenians escaping from the massacres in Turkey in the early 1920's.Cairo was a cosmopolitan city in the mid thirties through the 1960's when I left. Most salesclerks in department stores like Cicurel, Orosdi-Back, Chemla, Gattegno, Yacoubian, spoke French. The business language was English. Arabic was used with vendors. There was large community of Greeks, Italians, Maltese, English, French, Germans and a sprinkling of Swiss and other Europeans. Television arrived in Cairo in the early 1960's.
The sunsets along the river Nile are memorable, the sun sinking through the palm leaves. The Nile was a quiet river than, an occasional barge or boat sliding with languor along its shores. During World War II Egypt was a protectorate under Great Britian but was secretly aspiring for independence which it achieved eventually.
Mary Terzian
www.maryterzian.com
Author, The Immigrants' Daughter
Winner, Best Books 2006 Award
Finalist, National Indie Excellence 2007 Book Awards
multicultural, non-fiction category
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