Selk Sha’ek(A Barbed Wire), Khairi Abdel-Gawad, Cairo: Al-Dar Al-Masreya Al-Lebnaneya 2010. pp.118 

“If you want a comprehensive summary of my character in a nutshell I would say to you: I am a man who sold himself to imagination!”  Khairi Abdel-Gawad is said to be one of the most important authors to write about the Egyptian ‘alley’ following in the footsteps of Naguib Mahfouz.

The main idea of his novel is best portrayed in his own words, “Perhaps the difference is what attracts me to you; it is the law of gravity, my dear. Your aristocracy against my vulgarity.  Your female attractiveness compared to manhood. Your intelligence and sharpness against my childish dreams. your pragmatism compared to my fertile imagination, your disbelief in everything, compared to my firm belief in everything.”