A physician as well as a writer, Yusuf Idris (1927-1991) was imprisoned for political activism under both Farouk and Nasser. For a time he was forced to retire from public view, but he emerged after the 1973 war, when he was appointed literary editor of Cairo's Al Ahram newspaper. His stories are powerful reflections of both the experiences of his own rebellious life and his concern with social injustice.