PositiveFinancial Times (UK)Decadence and debauchery to some — Egypt’s own \'Roaring Twenties\' to many others — drew a cosmopolitan crowd into a scene in which remarkable women rose frequently to the top. Midnight in Cairo is a fizzing tale of an underexplored period.
Christopher de Bellaigue
RaveThe Financial TimesHis cast of characters — 'the Muslim pioneers we never thought existed' — is presented with flair and an acute eye. There are several classic accounts of Islam’s engagement with modernity, but the originality of this book is to tie together the Arab Awakening or Nahda with the Persian and Turkish enlightenment of the 19th century ... This is a civilised and beautifully written story of the advances and reverses of a great civilisation that lost its own way, was shunted into cul-de-sacs by predatory European imperialists — and yet was and is constantly searching out ways to bounce back.
