This collection of fourteen connected stories and a novella, From the Secret History of Numan Abdel Hafez, takes us deep into Upper Egypt and the village of Dayrut al-Sharif. To depict a world renowned for its poverty, ignorance, vendettas, and implacable code of honor, Mohamed Mustagab deploys the black humor and Swiftian sarcasm of the insider who knows his society only too well.