The City of the Dead is a large area on the periphery of Cairo where people live in house-like tombs. This study focuses on two Egyptian novels Sakawa 1-misri l-fasih (1981-1985) by Yusuf al-Qaid and Madad (2014) by Mahmud al-Wirwari, in which living in the cemeteries is portrayed as a paradoxical reality where life and death overlap. Limits between the two are blurred, and this creates a confusing situation where kind marks are lost and moral values are subverted. Tins situation echoes the characters' personal dilemmas and the uncertain historical context in winch they live. Tins article sheds light on the representation of life in the cemeteries and the concrete and symbolic function of tins space. It also discusses tins representation within the portrayal of peripheries and marginal spaces in contemporary Egyptian fiction, and explores the way the two novels published several decades apart use tins ambivalent: space to relate their respective historical realities.