Mortal Designs: A Novel

Captain Murad is busy planning for the Afterlife.
He dreams of a grand, sunlit mausoleum on the banks of the Nile.
To realize his pharaonic folly, the retired captain kindles an unlikely romance between Hazem, a feckless architect longing for immortality, and Asma, an impoverished single mother who strives for a better life for her children. As Murad's tomb rises on the riverbank, so Hazem and Asma fall in love.
A contemporary Egyptian romance of rare grace and wit, played out by characters trapped in their attitudes toward class and gender.