Sleep Phase

After seven years in prison, Warif is released to a changed Cairo. Freedom so far has been endless, inscrutable meetings with official—looking strangers, trying to get his job as a translator back. This new Cairo, busy with expats and bureaucrats, is proving disorienting: What is he supposed to make of these self—assured newcomers who are so certain of his obsolescence, his subjugation, his solitude? They seem happy to provide him with a salary, if he’s willing to give up the work that gave...