Where does the lamplight end? How does the darkness begin? And does it matter? - al-Tayyib Salih

It is a chaotic house, built without method, and has acquired its present form over many years: many differently-sized rooms, some built up against one another at different times, either because they were needed or because my grandfather found himself with some spare money for which he had no other use.

The human world is a “boiling cauldron” that cannot be defined precisely ― it is a dynamic fluid with smooth gradation within, at the same time integral and turbulent, and both known and unknown to itself.

Haneen is often seen traveling around with no possessions, food, or people for he is “a pious man wholly dedicated to his religious devotions,”