Newspaper Shreds

About the Book

Seven thousand miles is the distance between Cairo, Egypt and the U.S. east coast, and I have been exposed to the worst kind of abuse on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. “Newspaper Shreds,” spread on my late mother’s bed, on her “honeymoon” signaled to my late father that my mother’s pregnancy with me was a result of adultery. Being convinced of a child’s illegitimacy by a non-Arab husband wouldn’t be such a “great deal,” but to an Egyptian (particularly Christian) husband , the consequences are no less than a disaster, a lifetime disaster to both the wife and the child. On the late morning of August 17, 2008, I determined for myself that I have always been my father’s legitimate son. My story may be an indictment of the culture in which I was born and raised, and of my own father’s treatment of my mother and myself. However, it is important to me, just like anything in my life, that I tell the Truth: “I have loved my father a whole lot more than I cared for life itself. My story spans more than six decades of witnessing the terrible treatment of women both in Egypt as well as the United States. The novel also displays the disastrous effects that those attitudes and that treatment have wrought on the children born to those societies. This is not a social commentary, but a personal story that really impacted me and “almost” my beliefs. It has black-colored the way I see the world. At one point in my life, due to a serious illness, I wrongly thought that I would never be able to father children. The night I thought that there was “no hope,” I was sitting with an elderly lady, that same night, who lived next door to me in Cincinnati. As the lady realized that she had no more phrases to comfort me, she left me with one sentences. “So what, rats multiply too, but they live and die as rats,” she said.

About the Author

Erian A. Baskharone is a Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. He is a member of the ASME Turbomachinery Executive Committee. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, Dr, Baskharone became a Senior Engineer with Allied-Signal Aerospace Corporation, responsible for the aerothermodynamic design of the turbine an exhaust systems of varius turbofan and turboprop engines. His research in the latter, as well at Texas A&M, covered a wide spectrum of turbomachinery topics, including the mutual unsteady stator/rotor interaction within a turbomachinery stage, and the fluid-induced vibration in the Space Shuttle Main Engine turbopumps. His perturbation approach to the later was a significant breakthrough in the area of Rotodynamics. He is the recipient of the General Dynamics’ Award of Excellence in Engineering Teaching (1991), and the Amoco Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching (1992).