Empty Cages

“Fatma’s writing is magnificently fluid. . . . The brilliance of her prose lies in its reflection of the complex emotions we endure when those we love disappoint us and leave us without support. . . .Few writers possess Fatma's boldness in this lifetime.”—The New Arab

“Empty Cages is a beautiful, lingering novel. Fatma’s own approach to her story seems like a dare to challenge her detachment. At every turn, she downplays her defiance of cultural taboos. She smokes, drinks, rejects marriage as destiny, and pursues poetry—not in rebellion, but in quiet insistence on her own path.” —Foreword Reviews

"Empty Cages is beautiful and daring. In rich prose, we catch sight of poignant truths, which encompass both hope and disappointment, the weakness of human character and the struggle to resist it, and the pain and pleasure of discovery."—Hussein Hammouda, Cairo University

"Fatma Qandil has successfully created a novel of the self. All her memories are transformed into idols, which she then destroys. She stays there, sweeping up the dusty remains of those idols, even though she may be one herself."—Thaer Deeb, Deputy Director of the Translation Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

"Fatma Qandil's language is sly. Whenever we catch hold of a thread, we discover it only exists in our imagination. Her genre-mixing, redrawing boundaries or erasing them entirely, is itself an act of freedom"—Shereen Abouelnaga, Cairo University

"An unflinchingly honest portrayal of the relationships of violence that lie beneath the surface of an ordinary, middle-class Egyptian family."—Dina Heshmat, American University in Cairo