You Must Believe in Spring
Who would protest in heaven?
13 October 2022
Paperback / 9781914221187
ebook / 9781914221194
264 pages
‘A remarkable work of political imagination … Unapologetically dense and rich.’
— The Skinny
Twenty years after she first chanted in Tahrir, Hanan’s son is living under military rule in Egypt. Though he is both a disciple of the national Sufi institute and a swimmer representing the Armed Forces, proximity to power cannot undo his revolutionary birthright: like his mother and grandmother before him, Shahed is an undercover rebel.
When a general arrives at the Sufi institute looking for help with a military assignment, Shahed accepts, all while concealing his own plans for resistance. The mission takes him behind the walls of a prison town, inside a secret army barracks in the Sinai desert, and deep into the murky waters of the past.
As he wades through his mother’s repressed memories and the state’s repressed histories, Shahed grapples with the traumas of the revolution and the weight of authoritarian rule, searching for new ways to revolt for freedom.
Mohamed Tonsy is a queer Egyptian writer and ceramicist. Formerly an architect and a triathlete representing the Egyptian Triathlon Federation, he completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. His writing has appeared in Mizna and Epoch Press and was shortlisted in MFest’s 2021 Short Story Competition. You Must Believe in Spring is his first book.
Listen along to the You Must Believe in Spring playlist, curated by Mohamed Tonsy.
‘Provocative and creative … [blazes] new trails into vast, uncharted territories.’
— Amir Ahmadi Arian, author of Then the Fish Swallowed Him
‘Knotty, hopeful and heartful.’
— Yara Rodrigues Fowler, author of there are more things
‘A visionary work from a remarkable new voice. Tonsy’s use of speculative fiction to archive the past gives us a mesmerising new lens onto the 2011 revolution in Egypt.’
— Akil Kumarasamy, author of Meet Us by the Roaring Sea
‘A beautiful and assured debut, masterfully pulling apart the complexities of a singular moment in time.’
— Heather Parry, author of Orpheus Builds a Girl
‘This critical contribution to contemporary Arab literature quietly keeps the flame—and the bruises—of a concussed Egyptian revolution alive.’
— Farah Abdessamad, writer, critic and essayist
‘In this excellent work of speculative political fiction, Tonsy succeeds in making us rethink the events of the revolution and other stories that exist in history’s margins.’
— Nihal El Aasar, Egyptian writer and researcher
‘A sprawling, dense and simultaneously intimate portrait of a traumatised Cairo.’
— A. Naji Bakhti, author of Between Beirut and the Moon
‘This … is where the most exciting fiction is at this pivotal moment of global political turmoil.’
— Elizabeth Chakrabarty, author of Lessons in Love and Other Crimes
Press
EXTRACT: You Must Believe in Spring
— Rowayat, Issue 7, October 2023
INTERVIEW: The Inevitability of Spring — An Interview with Mohamed Tonsy
— Tint Journal, 31 July 2023
INTERVIEW: Mohamed Tonsy, “You Must Believe in Spring” (Hajar Press, 2022)
— New Books in Literature podcast, 14 March 2023
REVIEW: You Must Believe in Spring by Mohamed Tonsy
— The Skinny, 28 November 2022
Artist Spotlight: Mohamed Tonsy
— Epoch Press, 28 December 2021
Mohamed Tonsy: Connecting Ceramics and Literature through Imagined Futures
— Craft Scotland, 25 November 2021