The Egyptian people felt betrayed as they witnessed how other nations advanced while theirs fell behind. Their disappointment in the performance of their government ignited the 2011 revolution. While still in the aftermath of their celebrations, their revolution was stolen, yet hope never eluded them. Inspired by those events, Noran Omar Shafey weaves the themes of betrayal, loss and hope into her debut novel. Baraweez, the Egyptian colloquial word for frames tells the dramatic stories of three Egyptian women portrayed in frames on Nanna's side table which she reveals to her granddaughter. Farida is betrayed while seeking true friendship; Sagy fights back to get her stolen son; and Soha never gives up hope on finding true love. These three stories are set within the story of Nanna, Salma and their family going about their daily lives in Alexandria in the midst of fast-paced political upheaval, unrest and uncertainty during the January 25th 2011 revolution.
Noran Shafey prefers to be called a storyteller, the name she was given by her school friends who encouraged her to write. A proud Egyptian and a medical school graduate, she worked as a high school teacher but her true passion was always literature. She later tried to fulfill her dream of writing by publishing numerous articles in both English and Arabic in Egyptian magazines while she worked in Bibliotheca Alexandrina as an editor. Shafey, whose second passion is traveling, has lived in Beirut and now lives in Riyadh where she is chief editor of Kingdom Health Magazine and feeds her blog 'Journey into My Mind' with inner reflections and travel experiences. Baraweez is her first novel, and she hopes that many others will follow.
