This week is the first of two Talking Books specials from Egypt.

As the country moves towards Parliamentary elections following the momentous events of the Arab Uprising, Razia Iqbal talks to novelist Alaa Al Aswany, author of the best-selling The Yacoubian Building and one of Egypt's most prominent writers.

Al Aswany was a vocal critique of the former Mubarak regime but post revolution, can Egyptian writers expect more freedoms or more constraints? Show less