In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, an Egyptian American woman and a man from the village of Shobrakheit meet at a cafâe in Cairo. He was a photographer of the revolution, but now finds himself unemployed and addicted to cocaine, living in a rooftop shack. She is a nostalgic daughter of immigrants 'returning' to a country she's never been to before, teaching English and living in a light-filled flat with balconies on all sides. They fall in love and he moves in. But soon their desire--for one another, for the selves they want to become through the other--takes a violent turn that neither of them expected.

"Propulsive and philosophical. . . . The novel brims with sparkling prose. Naga's sentences are precise and rich with bold, complex observations. . . . [An] exhilarating debut."--Nadia Owusu, New York Times Book Review

"The prose is blazing, the politics nuanced, and the honesty unflinching." --Tess Gunty, The Guardian (UK)