In Hala El Badry's prize-winning and controversial novel, A Certain Woman, Nahid is a woman searching for liberation, not from a repressive society or a male-dominated world, but from self-imposed taboos that inhibit a woman's ability to find fulfillment. In a narrative much excoriated by conservative critics, Nahid's adulterous affair becomes an occasion to explore the subtleties and contradictions that surround sexuality, desire and love.

Translated by: Farouk Abdel Wahab