Excerpt
Hanan al-Shaykh, an award-winning journalist, novelist, and playwright, is the author of the short story collection
I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops; the novels
The Story of Zahra, Women of Sand and Myrrh, Beirut Blues, and
Only in London; and a memoir about her mother,
The Locust and the Bird. She was raised in Beirut, educated in Cairo, and lives in London.