One day before the setback

A novel that tells of a time of fleeting dreams. Three years before June 1967, full of events and pregnant with what was to come. The story of Karima, Hamza, and Abdel-Moati, indeed, the story of all of Egypt!

“Our conversations began to delve into topics beyond love and Egyptian dialect, exploring the worlds of politics and economics. In one meeting, Paula looked like a white angel after taking a cold shower. She sat across from me at the small round dining table in the studio where she lived. Looking me straight in the eye, she asked, ‘Hamza, you’re very intelligent. Wouldn’t you like to work for an American consulting firm?’” Hamza El-Nady

“The shock of the surprise rendered us speechless; the discussion ceased. It was him, in the flesh, Nasser, with his broad smile and white temples. He removed his sunglasses and gestured with his fingers for the four strange men to leave the tent. They left the tent, but they didn't leave us. They stood outside and untied the upper part of the four-sided fabric paneling from the roof. A window, no more than fifty centimeters wide, was formed. The bodyguards continued to look at us through it.” – Karima Osman

"I was surprised when the editor-in-chief whispered, leaning his head closer to the desk:

Didn't you notice the pigeons that flew away yesterday in Abdel Halim's song?

- Of course I noticed, it's clear that the song was lyrics, melody, singing, and even directed!

No, by God's grace, Halim had his cousin bring a cage of pigeons and release them in the sky above the Officers' Club during the song "Sora"! What you didn't see was when the Republican Guard men, who were hiding in the trees of the club, came down and arrested Halim's cousin. - Abdel-Moaty Salam