Albert Cossery - As Cores da Infâmia

"There is nothing more immoral than stealing without risk. It is risk that differentiates us from bankers and their emulators who practice legalized theft with government backing."

Albert Cossery (1913-2008), in "The Colors of Infamy" (1999), continues to pursue the imbecility of the great of this world, for him an inexhaustible source of inspiration. In his last book, the master of laziness and unrepentant idler continues the saga of the anti-heroes of Cairo's backstreets and tells the story of an intelligent and ironic thief who finds in the wallet of an unscrupulous developer a letter that proves his responsibility in the collapse of a rental building, causing the death of the poor tenants.

For this Egyptian writer of French language, who was born in Cairo and has lived in a hotel room in Paris since 1945, "doing nothing is an inner activity," hence the fifteen-year wait for this latest novel, in which all his favorite themes are addressed: hatred of the nabobs, irony regarding power, and the desire to see the triumph of the only creatures worthy of his consideration, that is, those who have realized that life is something else, and has nothing to do with the possession of material goods.