This is the first Arabic novel I've read in a good, long while. And I'm glad I got the chance to do so, since it's one of the best stories I've read in quite some time. Jose/Eissa is an excellent, well-realized character in a world that is intensely realistic, in all its minuscule triumphs and long-entrenched norms and traditions. The experience of one's social status affecting their lot in life is not relegated to a certain country, or even a certain part of the world, but as one who's lived in Saudi Arabia for some time, and Egypt for most of his life, it all rings very true.

I do not know whether one could call that ending a happy one or not, but it is definitely what one would call a realistic one. Acceptance, in the end, feels like the most one could afford at times.

Read this book. It's worth your while.