When he laid eyes on Farida for the first time, he was frozen in astonishment: "I have lived through this before." He felt that life had returned as a pleasant show, and that he had not lost the ability to see things before they happened. He was sure he saw the call that face had made before. He felt something hot, stronger than the familiarity he felt in female company. When he invited her to his apartment for the first time after that, he sat next to her on the sofa, smiling nervously. He felt like a deceiver, and that she had only accepted the invitation out of pity for his loneliness, which he had exaggerated in describing, but she was the one who had kissed him first.

روائي مصري. ولد في 23 ديسمبر 1961، تخرج في كلية الإعلام بجامعة القاهرة عام 1983. فازت روايته "بيت الديب" بجائزة نجيب محفوظ عام 2012 وصدرت مترجمة عن دار نشر الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة، وصدرت ترجمتها الصينية عام 2017 عن دار الحكمة. تُرجم له إلى الإيطالية كتاب "العار من الضفتين" ورواية "مدينة اللذة". وصلت روايته «يكفي أننا معًا» إلى القائمة القصيرة لجائزة الشيخ زايد عام 2017.