In Egypt a new era has dawned, but the dawn has taken an ominous turn.
President Gamal Abdel Nasser has just proclaimed the first in a series
of nationalization decrees, the stock exchange has shut down, and its
parking attendant, Sayyid, is staring at penury. Across the street, the
office of the Ministry's Supervisory Board of Administrative
Organization is engulfed in an eerie silence, and the narrator, one of
the two remaining fulltime occupants of that nearly defunct government
office, has fallen desperately in love with the other, Doha--forceful,
erudite, and, a complete enigma, with a spiritual bond to the Egyptian
goddess Aset. In this sophisticated, richly textured novel the author
explores such themes as apathy and despair, courage and self-sacrifice,
ambition and temptation, disillusionment and political faith, and, above
all, commitment and betrayal.