the acclaimed international bestseller by the nobel prize winning author. 'a masterpiece' - the times 'the arab tolstoy' - simon sebag montefiore 'shamelessly entertaining' - guardian 'luminous' - new york times a sweeping and evocative portrait of both a family and a country struggling to move toward independence in a society that has resisted change for centuries. set against the backdrop of britain's occupation of egypt immediately after world war i, palace walk introduces us to the al jawad family. ahmad, a middle-class shopkeeper runs his household strictly according to the qur'an while at night he explores the pleasures of cairo. a tyrant at home, ahmad forces his gentle, oppressed wife and two daughters to live cloistered lives behind the house's latticed windows, while his three very different sons live in fear of his harsh will. the first book of the classic cairo trilogy, the greatest and best loved work by the 20th century's most important arab novelist.