The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World
by Lucette Lagnado

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World
List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $14.50
You Save: $11.45 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.44 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Lucette Lagnado
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2007-07-01
ISBN: 0060822120
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Ecco

Book Reviews of The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World

Book Review: Eye-opener to a Sephardic Jewish family in Cairo
Summary: 5 Stars

This is one of the best books I have ever read! There are too few stories about Sephardic Jews from the Middle East. I had no idea about Cairo being so cosmopolitan in the 1920s to 1940s. As an Ashkenazi Jew the Jewish stories I'm familiar with are mostly of Jews from Europe and Russia. This is extremely well-written and compelling. The characters are intimately portrayed, and the story moves along quickly. I couldn't put it down. This is a book that I'm recommending to all my friends and family.

Summary of The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World

In vivid and graceful prose, Lucette Lagnado re-creates the majesty and cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years between World War II and Gamal Abdel Nasser's rise to power. Her father, Leon, was a boulevardier who conducted business on the elegant terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, and later, in the cozy, dark bar of the Nile Hilton, dressed in his signature white sharkskin suit. But with the fall of King Farouk and Nasser's nationalization of Egyptian industry, Leon and his family lose everything. As streets are renamed, neighborhoods of their fellow Jews disbanded, and the city purged of all foreign influence, the Lagnados, too, must make their escape. With all of their belongings packed into twenty-six suitcases, their jewels and gold coins hidden in sealed tins of marmalade, Leon and his family depart for any land that will take them. The poverty and hardships they encounter in their flight from Cairo to Paris to New York are strikingly juxta-posed against the beauty and comforts of the lives they left behind.

An inversion of the American dream set against the stunning portraits of three world cities, Lucette Lagnado's memoir offers a grand and sweeping story of faith, tradition, tragedy, and triumph.

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature
Accidents: A Novel ImageAccidents: A Novel
by Yael Hedaya
Picador; Published: 2006-07-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.62
Price in other shops: $15.00
Disobedience: A Novel ImageDisobedience: A Novel
by Naomi Alderman
Touchstone; Published: 2007-05-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.87
Price in other shops: $14.00
Not Me: A Novel ImageNot Me: A Novel
by Michael Lavigne
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2007-02-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.20
Price in other shops: $13.95
Our Holocaust ImageOur Holocaust
by Amir Gutfreund
Toby Press; Published: 2006-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.90
Price in other shops: $24.95
The Genizah At The House Of Shepher ImageThe Genizah At The House Of Shepher
by Tamar Yellin
Toby Press; Published: 2005-03-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops: $19.95
A Crack in the Earth: A Journey up Israel's Rift Valley ImageA Crack in the Earth: A Journey up Israel's Rift Valley
by Haim Watzman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2007-05-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops: $23.00
Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft (Yale University Press) ImageChurchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft (Yale University Press)
by Michael Makovsky
Yale University Press; Published: 2007-08-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.67
Price in other shops: $35.00
The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity ImageThe Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity
by Eric L. Goldstein
Princeton University Press; Published: 2007-12-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.85
Price in other shops: $19.95
Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman among Books ImageHouses of Study: A Jewish Woman among Books
by Ilana M. Blumberg
University of Nebraska Press; Published: 2007-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.37
Price in other shops: $24.95
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World ImageThe Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World
by Lucette Lagnado
Ecco; Published: 2007-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.13
Price in other shops: $25.95
Similar Books and other products
The Ministry of Special Cases ImageThe Ministry of Special Cases
by Nathan Englander
Knopf; Published: 2007-04-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.90
Price in other shops: $25.00
Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews ImageAromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews
by Poopa Dweck, Michael J. Cohen
Ecco; Published: 2007-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $32.43
Price in other shops: $49.95
Unaccustomed Earth ImageUnaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Knopf; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.07
Price in other shops: $25.00
A Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel ImageA Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel
by Meir Shalev
Schocken; Published: 2007-10-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.07
Price in other shops: $25.00
The Lost World of the Egyptian Jews: First-person Accounts from Egypt's Jewish Community In the Twentieth Century ImageThe Lost World of the Egyptian Jews: First-person Accounts from Egypt's Jewish Community In the Twentieth Century
by Liliane S Dammond
iUniverse, Inc.; Published: 2007-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.34
Price in other shops: $22.95
Out of Egypt : A Memoir ImageOut of Egypt : A Memoir
by Andre Aciman
Published: 1996-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $32.23
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story ImageThe Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
by Diane Ackerman
W. W. Norton; Published: 2007-09-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.50
Price in other shops: $23.95
Away: A Novel ImageAway: A Novel
by Amy Bloom
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2008-06-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.48
Price in other shops: $14.00
People of the Book: A Novel ImagePeople of the Book: A Novel
by Geraldine Brooks
Viking Adult; Published: 2008-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.94
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Septembers of Shiraz: A Novel (P.S.) ImageThe Septembers of Shiraz: A Novel (P.S.)
by Dalia Sofer
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.11
Price in other shops: $13.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories