This work is an autobiography or an autobiographical novel, not purely fiction. In it, author Fatma Qandil recounts her family history and painful personal experiences with rare courage and frankness. The book addresses themes such as illness, death, the disintegration of family bonds within the middle class, and the impact of major societal transformations in Egypt (from the 1950s to the 1990s) on individuals’ lives. Pain is the true protagonist of this memoir, which reveals the “ugly face of a selfish family” and exposes the “illusion of the myth of strong family ties.”