Dancing on Embers

About this book

Between the embers of the past and salvation's frost.. does dancing suffice for forgetting? In the worlds of "Nashwa Abu El-Wafa," destinies do not walk a straight line, but twist like Upper Egypt's rugged roads and crowd like Cairo's forgotten streets. "Dancing on Embers" is no mere novel, but a mirror reflecting the human being's struggle with his constraints, where "El-Hareidia" village in Sohag appears with all its legacy and its men's sway like "Kamal Agag," to confront the capital's din swallowing weak souls. Here we meet "Samaa," whose innocence was stolen to become "Samahr," the dancer trying to keep what remains of her pride under the weight of "El-Mazag," the man who sees in women mere numbers and deals. We accompany her as she takes her first steps in "the Stars' Cabaret's" world, carrying orphanhood's memories and the tin shanty's squalor, and the wounds of "Nosa" narrating the tales of treachery love commits when it falls into beasts' grip. The novel dives into hushed-about zones, where wood trading mingles with human trafficking, and where the search for the "treasure" buried under the soil parallels the search for lost safety above it. Will "Samahr" and "Nosa" succeed in the escape journey toward "freedom" beyond the borders? Or are the shackles binding their souls too strong to break? A social human novel par excellence, in which the writer weaves mystery's threads with moments of inspiration born from pain's womb, presenting us an epic of steadfastness in fire's face, affirming that whoever dances on embers does so not for luxury, but lest his feet burn from standing in one place.