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This Monday's Strand is an edited version of World Book Club. Harriett Gilbert talks to acclaimed Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswaany about his bestselling novel 'The Yacoubian Building'.

The Arab-world鈥檚 No. 1 bestseller for five years running after it was published in 2002, 'The Yacoubian Building' interweaves the stories of a group of diverse characters who live and work in downtown Cairo. A moving study of politics and power, sex and revenge, centred on the apartment building of the title which still stands in Cairo today, the novel offers a compelling yet daringly scathing portrayal of modern Egypt since the Revolution of 1952.