The latest addition to my website is Taha Hussein‘s دعاء الكروان (The Call of the Curlew). Taha Hussein is considered as one of the greatest Egyptian novelists but is also noted for his liberal views and for the fact that he earned academic and political distinction as well, despite being blind from the age of three. This novel tells of a mother and two adult daughters, who are forced to leave their village in shame when their husband/father is killed for his womanising. They find work elsewhere but one of the daughters, Hanadi, is seduced by her employer, an engineer, and again they have to leave. Hanadi is murdered by her uncle for bringing further shame on the family while her sister, Amina vows revenge on the engineer. Hussein tells his story well and is clearly full of sympathy for the hapless women, innocent victims of a male society.