Tower of Dreams by Jamil Nasir

Set in a Cairo and a Middle East of just slightly in the future (in relation to time of publication), an American of Arab ethnic roots struggles with horrible nightmares of an achingly beautiful Arab girl's death and an impending natural disaster that threatens to take Cairo and its teeming millions literally off the map. The fact that the American is there to draw on psychic images from the deep unconcious of a society that would appeal to the American capitalist masses in a hyper stimulation saturated advertising world makes it excruciating that he should continually bring up such devestating, confusing and painful images. A chance viewing of an Egyptian movie star's poster, sends him on a long and intense search to find her. She is the image of the young Arab girl and whatever is boiling to the surface of his psychic dredging is directly linked to her and the millions of the Arab populace linked with her. The author mixes in slightly advanced futuristic technologies enough to satisfy a sci-techie with the starkly poor and incredibly destitute yet rich cultural and traditional world of the Middle East. The story not only provides insights into modern use of psychosocial subliminal persuasion in advertising, but also a highly descriptive exposure to the Arab world in general. During the couple of hours it took to read, I lost myself in a movie like quality of visualising every bit of what he was writing.