Iconic Nabil Farouk: The grief of losing the second leaf of our childhood tree

CAIRO - 10 December 2020: Acclaimed Egyptian writer and novelist Nabil Farouk passed away  at 64 on December 9 after suffering a heart attack.

This was the sentence I heard and read in all the news websites and social media .. but is it true? 

Yes it is and I am supposed as usual to write a profile about him as this is my job but for the second time in my life I feel that my grief is so deep to write it and that all the words are meaningless now and can’t describe my sorrow for his loss, my love to him and how valuable he was not only to me but to my generation as well.

The first time was when we lost the mentor of our generation Ahmed Khaled Tawfik and now we lost our childhood friend and the one who shaped our pure dreams  Nabil Farouk.

As we lost with deep sadness the first leaf of our childhood tree Ahmed Khaled Tawfik aka Refaat Ismail, now we lost the second leaf by the death of Nabil Farouk aka Adham Sabry.

His daughter, Reham Farouk, announced his death on Facebook on December 9.

Farouk’s prayer service will be held at Talaat Mustafa Mosque in Rehab city on Thursday December 10.

He will be buried in the family cemetery in Ismailia.

Farouk was the one who took our hands to the world of spy fiction and introduced us to our fictional hero Adham Sabry,  who was the patrognist of his successful series, Ragol Al-Amostaheel (The Man of the Impossible).

We used to take his pocket novels and read them discreetly during classed

He was born in February 1956 in Tanta and was graduated from the faculty of medcine.

His main hobby at a very young age was reading.

At the age of 13 he made his first writing attempt with the encouragement of his parents.

He joined journalism, photography, and theatre workgroups in school.

While he was studying in the university, Farouk received an award from the Cultural Centre of Tanta for his novel “The Prophecy”which was later published as the first book of his “Cocktail 2000” series.

He read an advertisement in the World of Books magazine, saying that the Modern Arab Association was searching for science fiction writers.

He sent his novel “Ray of Death” and it was published a year later as the first book in ” Malak el Mostkabal” (The Future File) series.

His masterpiece Ragol el Mostaheel series of novels is said to be based on true stories of an Egyptian Central Intelligence agent called A.S.( Adham Sabry).

He used to write articles for two newspapers and three magazines, and started working on scripts for television series after finishing two films scripts, with a third one in progress.

Egypt’s Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem and all departments and sectors of the ministry mourned Farouk.

Abdel Dayem said that Farouk was a milestone in the spy fiction writing that Egyptian generations grew up reading his books with that contributed to the formation of their awareness and ideas.