A story of betrayal, desire, and family drama, written by a giant of
Egyptian popular fiction who shocked readers in the 1950s when this
Lolita-esque novel first appeared and whose work has never before been
available in English
Sixteen-year-old Nadia had been raised by her father, after her parents
divorced when she was only a baby. Indulged and petulant, she remained
the only female in her father's life. But when she returns from boarding
school to find that he has remarried without her knowledge, she
conspires to restore her rightful place, creating misery, confusion, and
a flood of unexpected consequences in her wake.
Written as a letter, a confession, by now twenty-one-year old Nadia,
Ihsan Abdel Kouddous's classic novel of revenge and betrayal challenges
patriarchal norms with its strong female characters and brazen
sexuality, and continues to speak to the complex human condition. It
dives into middle-class life, and lays bare the repressed desires,
seething jealousies, and complicated dramas of family.
Abdel Kouddous's masterpiece I Do Not Sleep was adapted into a classic
of Egyptian cinema in 1957, and its publication for the first time in
English is an international publishing event.