I had put out the candles and locked the door of the room and that of the courtyard without doing anything. Another fire would not have done any good. - al-Tayyib Salih

But I would hope you will not entertain the idea, dear sirs, that Mustafa Sa'eed had become an obsession that was ever with me in my comings and goings. Sometimes months would pass without his crossing my mind. In any case, he had died, by drowning or by suicide - God alone knows.

It was a steamingly hot July night, the Nile that year having experienced one of those floodings that occur once every twenty or thirty years and become legendary - something for fathers to talk to their sons about.

To the people, he is not a person, but an institution