Amal, a young Egyptian-American lawyer stripped of her citizenship in exchange for her release from prison, is forced to leave Egypt the next evening. At her farewell party she meets Omar and asks him to stay with her until she departs — and to tell her what has happened in the country during her years behind bars. Over thirty-six hours, Omar becomes her Scheherazade, recounting stories of mass protest and of quieter, everyday battles: broken ambitions, patriarchy, state violence, and lives reshaped by defeat. Their conversations, charged with intimacy and desire, reveal how politics enters the most private corners of life. At once personal and political, the novel portrays a generation struggling to endure — and to reinvent itself — in the aftermath of revolution.
“A modern tale from Arabian Nights. No caliph or slaves, but the essentials are there: sex, words, death - and perhaps love” Le Monde
“Bold, makes fun of the taboos.” Deutschland Funkkultur
“Every Egyptian reader can find himself in this novel” Al Jazeera
“A gripping, intimate prose that fuses political critique with bitter humor” Haaretz
“The disenchanted Egypt” Liberation
“Brutal, a triumph.” Mada Masr
