I just finished reading L'Immeuble Yacoubian by Alaa Al Aswany. The story is shaped around a building, but the characters take us through the various neighborhoods of Cairo. It's a fresco retracing political, religious, social and historical Egypt. A great read and a great introduction to the city.

Some time ago we had a discussion thread on the Yacoubian building, a book which I thought was excellent. This is the link (part of Reading Globally): http://www.librarything.com/topic/22552

I did a tagmach on fiction, Cairo to see what other books come up, besides the Yacoubian Building, whch was second on this listing.

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz.
Dreamers of the Day: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell.
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The Map of Love: A Novel by Ahdaf Soueif.
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin.

The athtor link for Naguib Mahfouz is: http://www.librarything.com/author/mahfo...