"A masterful kaleidoscope of emotions, ideas, and perspective. Mahfouz has captured a family and its homeland at one gloriously varied moment in a cycle." –
Newsday "Mahfouz's characters blaze with intensity, his Egypt pulsates with unresolved tension." –
The Atlanta Constitution "A resonant tour de force, a superbly written novel. One of the most enjoyable books of recent memory."
–St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Mahfouz presents us with a different concept of the world and makes it real. His genius is not just that he shows us Egyptian colonial society in all its complexity; it is that he makes us look through the vision of his vivid characters and see people and ideas that no longer seem so alien."
–Philadelphia Inquirer
