Book excerpt: The Man Who Lost His Shadow tells the story of Yusif Abdul Hamid, an ambitious Cairo journalist, through the eyes of four people: Mabruka, the young peasant girl who marries Yusif’s aging father while being attracted to Yusif; Samia, a minor actress, who Yusif lives with and almost marries but latter rejects; Muhammad Nagi, who Yusif pushes out of his job as newspaper editor after Muhammad marries Samia; and finally Yusif himself, editor-in-chief of the newspaper al-Ayyam, a stranger to himself.