Taking as the basis of her study the premise that the boundaries of history and literature are difficult to define, and that the two disciplines represent related types of narrative discourse, Samia Mehrez examines the work of three leading contemporary Egyptian writers: the Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, Sonallah Ibrahim, and Gamal al-Ghitani.

Mehrez delves into the relationship between history and narrative literature and shows that both attempt to transform 'reality' and 'life' into historical structures of meaning. By analyzing the works of these authors in terms of the relationship between authority and the production of narrative literature, she reveals a context in which literature becomes a kind of 'alternative' history - a discourse that comments not only on the history of a place but also on the creation of a narrative on history.

As the author says in the Introduction, "The three writers whose careers and works are discussed in these chapters represent some of the most crucial contributions to the larger signifying entity that has engaged the Arab reader in many transformative ways. . . . The authors and their works provide an indispensable (hi)story of the literary field itself, mapping, through their own development as artistic producers, the history of the context which they inhabit and in which they produce."