Lagnado re-creates the cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years between World War II and Nasser's rise to power. Her father, Leon, was a boulevardier who conducted business in his signature white sharkskin suit on the elegant terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, and later, in the cozy, dark bar of the Nile Hilton. But with the fall of King Farouk, Leon and his family lose everything. As streets are renamed, neighborhoods of their fellow Jews disbanded,...

A Jewish family's own diaspora begins at the end of World War II when Egypt, their homeland, gains full independence. The novel follows its members as they start new lives in Israel, colonial Africa and the U.S.