Empty Cages

"A gripping read . . . a raw meditation on grief and survival."—The National

"It's language of sheer beauty and power . . . I found myself gasping at times when Qandil delivered one of her many incisive lines."—The Markaz Review

"Astonishing . . . exceptional . . . lit from within by unexpected humor."—Shelf Awareness

"Raw, tenderly crafted."—ArabLit

“Profoundly intimate.”—Arab News

“Fatma’s writing is magnificently fluid . . . Few writers possess Fatma's boldness in this lifetime.”—The New Arab

“Very daring”—The Berliner

"Stunning . . . a really exciting first novel."—Mizna

“Empty Cages is a beautiful, lingering novel.” —Foreword Reviews

"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