From a meeting between Mihai, who is spending his honeymoon in Italy, with an old friend, the events of this novel begin. He soon finds himself leaving his wife at a train station, and begins his own journey, searching for himself and the memories of his youth. Traveling from one city to another, Mihai experiences the anxiety of his existential questions, and meets friends of that period. He learns the reason for Tamas’ suicide, and Eva’s relationship to this incident, but what does he really want from recalling stories told by time?
In this novel, which is considered one of the most prominent Hungarian novels in the modern era, which achieved great success, was translated into several languages, and was adapted for theater and cinema, the reader feels as if the author is able to penetrate his depths, and not only the depths of his characters.
The two brothers, Helmy and Diaa, work in a car repair shop, while their mother works as a dancer in a nightclub.
Every day, when she goes out to work, one of the brothers disguises herself in her clothes to imitate her, and exercises the same dominance over the other with which she treats them.
In a theatrical text based on the play “The Maids” by the French writer Jean Genet, and taking place in the poor post-war neighborhoods of Damascus, Zain Saleh raises the questions that an entire generation suffers from about power, family, asylum, and gender.
