Today’s Important Goodreads ''Sidi Barrani Tales'' by Mohamed El-Azab

Narrator is the grandson, and recounting the story to himself and his lover Maryam, a young girl who has a story of her own integrated within the main story. The grandson takes us through the different lives of his grandfather, who lived more than one life.

In another life, which takes place in Paris, he studied in one of the universities to become a renowned petroleum engineer and in a third he becomes a king in a women-only town. Finally, he even becomes a spiritual guide, believed to be a prophet.

Several themes can be traced in the novel: the male-dominated society is very vivid throughout the story, where all the major influential characters happen to be males with strong masculine abilities.

The exotic desert with its fascinating world serves as the frame within which the story and the several adjacent tales take place. Even the name of the novel, Sidi Barrani, has a story of its own. It is a real place in the very far northwest of the Egyptian desert, just over the Libyan borders.

Noteworthy, the name “Barrani” is a colloquial word for external or stranger, and “Sidi” is a title given to a miracle-man, who is regarded by the natives as a saint or a creature of supernatural powers.