Confessions of a Knight Errant

Few literary works have dealt with the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 as well as this novel did, whether in Arabic or English, by the American author, Gretchen McCullough. McCullough survived the events of the uprising at Tahrir Square—the novel focuses on a group of expatriates who stayed in the country. It would appeal to the lovers of detective novels as much it would appeal to wacky fantasy lovers and uses literary humor, which is emphasized in an alleged message by Colonel Muammar Qaddafi of Libya. The reader might share the author’s sarcasm about overwhelming globalization and the American lifestyle, whose advocates want to impose it on the rest of the world. Wait! It’s not just that. The reader might get free lessons in the art of cooking.

-Sonallah Ibrahim, Egyptian novelist 

This rollicking, rambunctious, compulsively readable comic novel follows the adventures of our narrator, Gary, a would-be writer, professor, rebel environmentalist, and accused cyber-terrorist on the run, as he encounters characters galore, from Cairo, Egypt, to a girls' summer camp in Texas. Along the way are murder, drugs, stolen antiquities, arson, sexual hijinks, and various international conspiracies that add up to a roller-coaster ride for the reader and, perhaps, some resolution for Gary as he takes on various identities, ponders his life, and asks, "Could we ever see ourselves as other saw us?"

-Jennifer Horne, Poet Laureate of Alabama 

Gretchen McCullough has written a wild ride through Cairo and beyond, a rollicking adventure tale peopled with grifters, reprobates, scalawags, and scoundrels—plus a few femmes fatale tossed in to keep things teetering on chaos. I couldn't put it down!

–Tom Lutz, Portraits: Moments of Intimacy on the Road

  Founder of The Los Angeles Review of Books