"The Voltaire of the Nile," Albert Cossery (1913–2008) was born in Cairo. At the age of seventeen he moved to Paris, where he would live for the rest of his life. Some of his books translated into English are Men God Forgot, The House of Certain Death, The Lazy Ones, and Proud Beggars. In 1990 Cossery was awarded the Grand Prix de La Francophonie de l’Académie Française.