RaveThe Irish Times (IRE)The story transitions skilfully between narrative strands and time periods and in Marilyn Booth’s graceful translation is never cluttered or confused ... the novel foregrounds female characters and their plight while observing a degree of democratic restraint across the storylines: there are no heroines or divas here; the characters are not competing for the reader’s attention ... This is a beautifully-realised novel about unfulfillment, told with a sober, melancholy intelligence. I admired Celestial Bodies very much but perhaps this is even better.
Alaa Al Aswany, tr. S. R. Fellowes
MixedThe Irish Times (IRE)At its best, the book is exhilarating in its storytelling and devastating in its societal critique. But the novel, like the society it depicts, is undecided on what it wants to be: it makes too many arguments to be just a story; it is too emotionally involved for reportage. It is, however, an evocative and informed account of an important moment in Egyptian society.
