...and provided that you can read and understand colloquial Egyptian Arabic (the Upper-Egyptian dialect, to be more specific), you really should read Gawabat Haragy El Kot (The Letters of Haragy EL Kot) by Abdel-Rahman El-Abnoudy.

Take masterful story-telling, super-lucid usage of colloquial language, seldom-matched literary prowess and soak all of that way deep in the cultural nuances and minutiae of the individual mindset and human interactions of  the Egyptian South. What you get is a true literary masterpiece.

The book comes with two CD’s of Abnoudy himself narrating the full text. His vocal narrative does not only complement the text, but even multiplies its literary and intellectual value by an unquantifiable measure. Abnoudy’s narration style is very theatrical while preserving cultural and emotional genuineness.

El-Abnoudy’s magnum opus is Al-Sira Al-Hilaliyya, a multi-volume folklore epic that took him three decades to compile from oral accounts. Yes, he spent 30 years collecting word-of-mouth bits and pieces of stories using an ancient tape recorder.

I think he should be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature for his literary awesomeness and amazing efforts in preserving indigenous oral traditions and cultural heritage.

On second thought, forget the Nobel Prize. They give it out too easy these days.