El-Bisatie's novella fails to provide a worthy read. His story is quick to pick-up, but slowly adds a mess of characters and and fails to provide any insight to a new culture- that of a small village in the Egyptian Delta. The characters end shallow (the reader will beg for an explanation of the characters by the end), and the ending is a mess. The climax, however, will convince the reader to painfully finish the 100 page novella, with its quick pace and crafted prose. El-Bisatie doesn't create a world of understanding for an American. His sentences ask the reader to question too much, like, "What is the point?" Bottom line... don't refuse the author, refuse the book.