"Do not see with your ears, nor hear with your eyes, and do not believe everything you are told... Some words are pictures: if you contemplate them, you may notice details missed at first glance-blurred shadows in the background, and small clues revealing their time and place. Turn them over, and your eyes may encounter words written by their creator that could change how you see them. We always see truth incompletely, yet feel it in full; so trust only your heart."

Three short novels by Ashraf El Ashmawy, woven through a narrative structure that blends realism with the absurd. With compelling storytelling and vivid imagery, they reveal the hidden irony in the gap between their protagonists' dreams and a reality stranger than fiction.