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Feb. 5th, 2025 11:51 pmIt took me a while to get around to reading Shubeik Lubeik because it is too large and beautiful to carry around easily and so I needed a timespan to read it when I was not going to be leaving the house much ... absolutely worth it though. What a book!!
Shubeik Lubeik is an Egyptian graphic novel in three sections; I liked the first two sections and absolutely loved the third, which functions both as a beautiful study in love and faith and friendship and as a perfect little piece of Twilight Zone-esque fuckery. Set in an alternate version of modern Egypt in which bottled magic exist and can transform a life for better or worse, the story centers on an elderly street-kiosk owner who has inherited three genuine first-class wishes. Unfortunately, as a devout Muslim, it's haram for him to use the wishes himself, and with the government starting to crack down on the sale and use of wishes he is becoming increasingly desperate to offload them. At a really nice discount! Which you wouldn't think would be difficult! But most people don't expect to find genuine first-class wishes at a street kiosk, so for years these wishes have just been sitting there in the back of the shop stressing poor Shokry out.
But eventually, of course, he does find some takers: Aziza, a grieving widow who almost immediately runs afoul of the bureaucratic regulations on wish use, and Nour, a university student from a privileged family, who is hoping the right wish might be the key to fixing their increasingly dire clinical depression. Each of these first two books functions simultaneously as a portrait of the particular wisher and their particular problems, and as a new set of lenses on the ways that magical wishes fit into this world that's almost exactly like our own, with all its accompanying injustices.
I like Aziza and Nour's stories very much, but the third section, which focuses on Shokry himself and his family and his friendships, is IMO a straight up masterwork. I will not spoil it; I will instead leave you with a reaction image of Shokry when he finally hits the twist:
Me too, Shokry. TBH. Anyway, strong recommend.
Shubeik Lubeik is an Egyptian graphic novel in three sections; I liked the first two sections and absolutely loved the third, which functions both as a beautiful study in love and faith and friendship and as a perfect little piece of Twilight Zone-esque fuckery. Set in an alternate version of modern Egypt in which bottled magic exist and can transform a life for better or worse, the story centers on an elderly street-kiosk owner who has inherited three genuine first-class wishes. Unfortunately, as a devout Muslim, it's haram for him to use the wishes himself, and with the government starting to crack down on the sale and use of wishes he is becoming increasingly desperate to offload them. At a really nice discount! Which you wouldn't think would be difficult! But most people don't expect to find genuine first-class wishes at a street kiosk, so for years these wishes have just been sitting there in the back of the shop stressing poor Shokry out.
But eventually, of course, he does find some takers: Aziza, a grieving widow who almost immediately runs afoul of the bureaucratic regulations on wish use, and Nour, a university student from a privileged family, who is hoping the right wish might be the key to fixing their increasingly dire clinical depression. Each of these first two books functions simultaneously as a portrait of the particular wisher and their particular problems, and as a new set of lenses on the ways that magical wishes fit into this world that's almost exactly like our own, with all its accompanying injustices.
I like Aziza and Nour's stories very much, but the third section, which focuses on Shokry himself and his family and his friendships, is IMO a straight up masterwork. I will not spoil it; I will instead leave you with a reaction image of Shokry when he finally hits the twist:
Me too, Shokry. TBH. Anyway, strong recommend.
