Metro: A Story of Cairo

Magdy El Shafee’s Metro: A Story of Cairo, published by Henry Holt and Co. in 2012, is a single-issue graphic novel that stands as a landmark in Egyptian comics. It follows a disaffected young Cairene as he navigates the city’s crushing bureaucracy and economic despair, offering a raw, unfiltered glimpse into life under the Mubarak regime. Praised as one of the first graphic novels from the Arab world to gain international attention, it remains a vital, politically charged work that captures the simmering tensions preceding the 2011 Egyptian revolution.