A chance encounter on a plane throws together Doha, a fashion designer unhappily married to a leading figure in the Mubarak regime, and Ashraf, an academic and leading dissident. The story of their relationship and Doha's self-discovery runs alongside a young Egyptian's search for the mother he never knew, and these intersecting narratives unfold against the background of political protests that culminate in the overthrow of the regime. A moving and at times humorous story, Butterfly Wings is an extended allegory of Egypt's modern experience of authoritarian rule and explores the fractures and challenges of a society at the moment of revolutionary transformation. Mohamed Salmawy's almost prophetic novel was first published in Arabic immediately prior to the events of 25 January 2011, and has been celebrated as 'the novel that predicted the Revolution.'

Mohamed Salmawy is an Egyptian poet, playwright, and novelist. He is president of the Writers' Union of Egypt, secretary general of the General Union of Arab Writers, and editor in chief of the weekly French-language al-Ahram Hebdo. Raphael Cohen is the translator of So You May See by Mona Prince (AUC Press, 2011) and Status: Emo by Eslam Mosbah (AUC Press, 2013).