Il romanzo, che si apre con una fotografia che è sinossi di tutto ciò che verrà, è saturo di storia e storie che creano un filo conduttore nei personaggi attraverso la narrazione della protagonista, Muhra, giovane donna, ultima discendente di una potente famiglia beduina del Delta del Nilo, un tempo proprietaria di terreni e uomini, nonostante l'abolizione della schiavitù, i Minazi. È un romanzo lirico che si sviluppa su due livelli, uno sguardo interno e analitico su di una realtà storico sociale dal passato glorioso e fumoso, come quella beduina, e le delicate vicende familiari dei Minazi fra superstizione, costumi, affetti e drammi.

Hind, newly arrived in New York with her eight-year-old son, several suitcases of unfinished manuscripts, and hardly any English, finds a room in a Brooklyn teeming with people like her who dream of becoming writers.

As she discovers the various corners of her new home, they conjure up parallel memories from her childhood and her small Bedouin village in the Nile Delta: Emilia who sells used shoes at the flea market smells like Zeinab, the old woman who worked for Hind's grandfather; the reflection of her own body as she dances tango awakens the awkwardness of her relationship to that body across the years; the story of Lilette, the Egyptian bourgeoise who has lost her memory, prompts Hind to safeguard her own.

Through this kaleidoscopic spectrum of disadvantaged characters we encounter unique but familiar life histories in this award-winning and intensely moving novel of displacement and exile. It was the winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Arabic Booker prize.

Hind, newly arrived in New York with her eight-year-old son, several suitcases of unfinished manuscripts, and hardly any English, finds a room in a Brooklyn teeming with people like her who dream of becoming writers.

As she discovers the various corners of her new home, they conjure up parallel memories from her childhood and her small Bedouin village in the Nile Delta: Emilia who sells used shoes at the flea market smells like Zeinab, the old woman who worked for Hind's grandfather; the reflection of her own body as she dances tango awakens the awkwardness of her relationship to that body across the years; the story of Lilette, the Egyptian bourgeoise who has lost her memory, prompts Hind to safeguard her own.

Through this kaleidoscopic spectrum of disadvantaged characters we encounter unique but familiar life histories in this award-winning and intensely moving novel of displacement and exile. It was the winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Arabic Booker prize.

This short but cleverly crafted novel recounts the tale of Muhra, a young woman whose name means filly, born of the descendants of the Bedouin tribes who settled in Egypt's Delta Province of El Sharqiyya during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Past mingles with present and myth and folklore blend with reality, as the narrative voice records Muhra's quest as she seeks to discover the truth about her mother through the old family photographs that adorn the walls of her grandfather's house and other documents hidden away in cupboards and drawers.
At once both narrator and narrated, Muhra's tale of self discovery is set against the dwindling fortunes of her own people as they struggle to preserve their identity and culture amid the larger Egyptian community that encroaches upon them. At the same time her father's wanderings and ultimate demise reflect the waning star of the Arab tribes who once controlled large swathes of Egyptian territory and enjoyed the patronage of Kings and Princes.
Unwilling to give up despite premonitions of doom, Muhra's search leads her inexorably to the bitter truth about her mother's poignant life and tragic and untimely end.