“Music followed him wherever he went. If it hadn’t been beautiful and giving, he might have said it was pursuing him. What temptation did it see in him? And what was the truth behind this wine that outweighed the impact of any drug?”Continue Reading

“I was immediately absorbed by the description of the Egyptian village, which I knew I would never experience so intimately as a visitor. The opening scene with its image of the novel’s 5-year old protagonist Medhat, racing across the canal that divides his village from the village of the Upper Egyptians had me hooked.”Continue Reading