The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit

My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World

By: Lucette Lagnado

Narrated by: Joyce Bean

“Poignant . . . deeply personal . . . an indelible history of the largely forgotten Jews of Egypt . . . ”—Miami Herald

In vivid and graceful prose, Lucette Lagnado re-creates the majesty and cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years before Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rise to power. With Nasser’s nationalization of Egyptian industry, her father, Leon, a boulevardier who conducted business in his white sharkskin suit, loses everything, and departs with the family 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 juxtaposed 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.

Wonderful and engrossing writing.

I read this novel several years ago from Kindle. It had stayed in my mind and when I found out it was available on Audible, I wanted to repeat it. So much more touching and emotional this time. I shall hold on to it, and listen again sometime. I am 89.

Wonderful book and excellent narrator.

I would highly recommend this book. Engaging story and a piece of history I never knew. The narrator did a wonderful job.

Most heart warming and touching portrayal of the life of a migrant.

I loved the exotic descriptions of a life gone by in Cairo. And the realistic description of the move to the new world. All is so credible and touching. Descriptions of people are so real and embracing. A reminder of how Jews have been forced to leave Arab lands. But nothing is said of that.
A wonderful book, a must read.

Touching

When I started listening to the book I didn’t like that much. The author was fascinated by her father to a legendary level. And perhaps being prejudice I thought the novel will continue on the same line. The novel quickly changes into a more human experience of a normal man and family and their ordeal and how they dealt with it.
The end is very touching and shows how when humans know each other they can overcome even the most difficult differences.

Painful pronunciation of French words

I really like the reader but,(and this is huge), someone should have told her how to pronounce the French words!!! There is quite a bit of French in this story and she has had no experience on how to pronounce any of the words! It took me out of the story in a jarring manner. It would have been an easy fix and I'm surprised that whoever proof-listens to the book, didn't notice this?
Story is great but the reading was a real problem for me.