Shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, the novel brings together four disparate characters—a Bedouin boy, an English lady, a retired officer, and a horse broker—for a high-stakes horse race in historical Egypt. Their fates intertwine as they each gamble on a single hope for redemption and a new beginning. The novel’s structure, which brings together a diverse cast in a single, high-stakes event, is highly cinematic. It uses the glamorous and socially stratified world of Egyptian horse racing in a past era to explore themes of class, ambition, and the universal human need for a “second chance.”