The Queue

May 16, 2016
In this allegorical novel from controversial Egyptian journalist Aziz, a failed political uprising leads to the establishment of a totalitarian regime known as the Gate, whose principal means of control is making its subjects wait in an endless line, the titular queue. A young man, Yehya, is shot by riot police during the revolt, an act of violence that the Gate flatly refuses to acknowledge, and much of the novel's story revolves around the unrecognized bullet still lodged in Yehya's gut. The large cast of characters includes Tarek, a conflicted physician; Nagy, Yehya's devoted friend; and Amani, a woman who puts herself at great risk to get Yehya the surgery he desperately needs. At its best, the novel captures a sense of futility and meaninglessness, but its impersonal tone and uneventful middle contribute, at times, to a lack of urgency. This sense is remedied, albeit too quickly, in a strong finale in which Tarek races along the queue to rescue a dying Yehya. Aziz ultimately suggests the worst while leaving the smallest space for hopeful interpretation, a fitting metaphor for Egypt after the Arab Spring.

In an unnamed city in Egypt, people wait in a colossal line for justice, for absolution, and for common decency from an authoritarian government known only as The Gate, which thus far has kept its doors shut. Mark Bramhall's deep voice and stoic tone carry this story, which cuts close to the bone of real-world atrocities, and his Middle Eastern accents are most impressive in their authenticity and subtlety. One of the men waiting is Yehia, who carries a government bullet in his pelvis, which is the only evidence The Gate harmed one of its citizens in an uprising. Bramhall embraces the multitude of characters wholeheartedly, breathing life into those in the queue as weeks turn into months and the pacing and tone shift from apprehension to indifference to, ultimately, desperation. E.E. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine