The Student

Loosely based on the author’s experiences in Cairo, immediately following the 1967 war, this engaging story follows a group of American students sent to Egypt to learn Arabic. During the course of their stay, the students experience conflict between their, often romanticized, images and the reality of life in Cairo as they learn to survive during the last days of the Nasser regime and the end of Egypt’s golden age. This book provides an alternative view of Egypt and the Middle East as its protagonist, an imaginary James Bond, studies, shops, haggles and defends his self-identity in a foreign culture.

John Amos holds a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and a JD from the Monterey College of Law. He has taught at university level for over 25 years in the fields of Middle Eastern Politics, Political Sociology, and Political Behaviour. His academic publications include two books, Arab-Israeli Military-Political Relations: Arab Perceptions and the Politics of Escalation, and The Palestinian Resistance; Organization of a Nationalist Movement as well as numerous articles in major academic journals. He has also edited Gulf Security into the Eighties: Perceptual and Strategic Dimensions. He has lived in the Middle East, most notably in Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, and Turkey. He currently practices law.