Overview
Region
North Africa
Egypt
Era
Contemporary
Language
Arabic
Genre
Fiction
About This Work
A cast of characters living in a decaying Cairo apartment building stand in for Egyptian society: a corrupt aristocrat, a Coptic Christian, a Islamist, a journalist, a gay man living in a rooftop shack.
Literary Significance
The bestselling novel in the Arab world in decades; an unflinching diagnosis of Egyptian society's corruption