I Loved You for Your Voice

Selim Nassib's novel, based on the life of Om Kalthoum, the peasant girl whose enormous talent made her Egypt's most celebrated artist and brought her unprecedented fame from all corners of the Arab world, is as passionately told as the story it recounts was lived. The tale of this great twentieth-century singer is told by Ahmed Rami, the poet-librettist who furnished Kalthoum the words to her songs and who loved her in vain.
Kalthoum, forced to disguise herself as a boy at the outset of her career, became her troubled country's most beloved performer and a living symbol of Egypt's rebirth. Her meteoric rise to international stardom and her astounding ability to maintain her popularity through the deep cultural, political and social changes that transformed Egypt in the twentieth century are testament not only to her talent but also her tenacity and ambition. The rumors of drug abuse and illicit affairs that plagued her at the height of her success, given the time and place, might have destroyed a lesser artist. But as Nassib recounts, Om Kalthoum was as determined as she was talented, and finally, nothing could assuage the adoration of her fans.
I Loved You For Your Voice recounts an ardent and enduring love story: of one man's love for a woman, of that woman's love for her music and her country, and of an entire world's love for its idols.