Ahdaf Soueif

Ahdaf Soueif is an Egyptian novelist and political and cultural commentator.

Soueif was born in Cairo, where she lives, and educated in Egypt and England. She studied for a PhD in linguistics at the University of Lancaster.

Her debut novel, In the Eye of the Sun (1993), set in Egypt and England, recounts the maturing of Asya, a beautiful Egyptian who, by her own admission, "feels more comfortable with art than with life." Her second novel The Map of Love (1999) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, has been translated into 21 languages and sold over a million copies.

Ahdaf Soueif is also a cultural and political commentator for the Guardian newspaper and she has been reported on the Egyptian revolution.