From the best-selling author of The Map of Love: a many-faceted, galvanizing firsthand account of the Egyptian revolution that is as well a thoughtful, passionate appraisal of what the future holds for Cairo, for Egypt, and for the Egyptian people.

When thousands of Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square after the eruption of the revolution on January 25, 2011, Ahdaf Soueif was among them. Now, in this deeply felt, vivid narrative, she writes of the passion, confusion, and violence that filled Cairo for eighteen days before the triumphant overturning of the corrupt Mubarak regime. And contrasted against the revolution, Soueif recalls peaceful mornings spent in Cairo with her mother, and the many memories she has of growing up in Egypt, a country whose importance is at the heart of her family's life. With a novelist's eye for detail and story, the perspective of a Cairo native, and the insight of someone who was on the ground during the first days of the revolution, Soueif gives us a personal, uniquely illuminating picture of an event watched by the world. This updated edition includes new material that considers Egypt's most recent turns, from the elections to the dissolution of Parliament to the first hundred days of Muhammad Morsi's presidency over a nation reborn.