The Call of the Curlew

Dr. Taha Hussein paints a clear picture of the Egyptian countryside, through the story of Amna, the rural girl who wants to avenge her sister Hanadi, after she was deceived by the single engineer for whom she worked as a maid. The story begins with the murder of the father, and Amna''s maternal uncle''s fear because of what her father did. The uncle insists on deporting her and her family from the village because people are threatening him and taunting him about his brother-in-law''s adultery. Amna''s mother tries to dissuade him, but he vehemently refuses. Amna and her young family move from their village, and begin working for the sheriff, and her sister Hanadi for the irrigation engineer. Hanadi falls in love with the single engineer, but he assaults her and destroys her life. Her uncle revolts when he finds out, and kills her in front of Amna''s eyes. Amna decides to take revenge on the engineer - her sister''s real killer. She deceives him and gets close to him, but she also falls in love with him, drowning in confusion between revenge for her sister and her feeling of love for him.