“More convincingly than any other woman writing in Arabic today, Alifa Rifaat lifts the vil on what it means to be a women living within a traditional Muslim society.” So states the translator’s foreword to this collection of the Egyptian author’s best short stories.

Chronicles the lives of two families in post-colonial Africa, the first – poor, working-class and ill-educated – is compared to the young politically aware college student and her journalist fiance.

Zack struggles with being a new Christian, a new husband and a new father all at once.