A letter to Sophie

Ophthalmologist relates his dramatic life story in a book dedicated to his granddaughter

Dr. Anis and his granddaughter, Sophie
Source: Azis Anis, M.D.

It started out as a two-page letter to his granddaughter that briefly explained her family’s history, but turned into a more than 350-page book that took Aziz Aniz, M.D., 12 and a half years to complete.
The retired ophthalmologist who spent the final years of his practice in Lincoln, Neb., explained, “As an immigrant from Egypt, I had it pretty bad for life, and I knew that even though I had told my daughters of our life when they were young, when they left Egypt, they didn’t know as much as I would want them to know about our real history, and I thought my little granddaughter would probably not know much at all about it.”
He said that when he moved to the United States, he was often misunderstood by people around him because there wasn’t always time to explain his background. Dr. Anis said he didn’t want that to happen with his own grandchild. So when she was born, he penned a little letter that was meant to be given to Sophie by her mother when she grew up.
Then, Dr. Anis said, “I realized it really would not give her any measured idea about who we are and so I decided to expand on it into a book.”
A Letter to Sophie documents the life of Dr. Anis who at a young age experiences the loss of Jewish family friends and schoolmates as a consequence of the anti-Semitism in World War II. Educated at a British private school in Cairo, Dr. Anis, a Coptic Christian, was witness to the prejudices of religion and class, through his father’s struggles and the growing momentum of organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood.
The book also tells of Dr. Anis’ successful pursuit of a career in medicine and the hard- won hand of his fellow student, Nadia, in marriage. The couple managed successful careers as physicians until political instability in Egypt saw their home and practice bombed and destroyed. The young family eventually immigrated to the United States where Dr. Anis faced prejudice in his medical-residency programs.
The book details the ophthalmologist’s struggles at home with family politics as his aging parents move in with him. Down the road, he experiences the tragic loss of his beloved Nadia. The memoir is an insightful look into Dr. Anis’ frustrations as an immigrant, the challenges of family life and the conflict between tradition and changing attitudes.
Although he had started writing the book the week Sophie was born, Dr. Anis said, “I really didn’t complete the book until I retired— only about two and a half years ago.”
The tremendous difficulty in finding a publisher or even an agent who would look at his manuscript sent Dr. Anis in the direction of self-publishing with iUniverse.
Having always wanted to write but only published scientific books, Dr. Anis found this particular task daunting:
“In writing outside of science, you are trying to create a vision, you are trying to give the reader the setting, and trying to explain it in words so that they can see it in their minds. You are trying to convey the emotions of each of your characters or the intent they want to show or the intent they want to conceal. You have to conceal them but let the reader know the emotions they’re concealing, so it’s a little bit more complex.”
Identifying the protagonist, antagonist and the assembly of characters was easier as compared to writing fiction, as in his memoir as they are real characters. But Dr. Anis said he had to be careful about changing their names because of liabilities.
“Not every character is explained in a complimentary way or you want to explain things that happened that were not positive so almost all the names are changed except my family names,” he explained.
The book, first published in 2007 has since received the Editor’s Choice award, the Publisher’s award, and the Reader’s Choice award by iUniverse.
Dr. Anis is now working on a number of books. One of them is a philosophical-theological book while another is fiction

Contact information

Anis: 402-730-0818, a.anis@yahoo.com