Saha Al-Saman Tells... 'Five Women's Stories'

In her debut novel, “The Lady Nafisa Cat,” journalist-author Soha Al-Saman engages with historic Cairo, portraying it as a space saturated with spirituality, popular memory, and human stories. This is conveyed through the journey of the protagonist, Afrah, whose fate intersects with five women’s tales, encountered within the precincts of the Lady Nafisa Mosque.

The heroine navigates a perplexing experience: a stalled novel she struggles to conceptualize, and a predicament tied to a peculiar agreement with her mother’s friend. Yet, she soon discovers that the place opens doors to faces and stories she had not anticipated. The problems of others appear to her as mirrors reflecting their fragility and deferred questions.

The novel’s title carries central significance. The cat is not merely a passing detail in the setting; rather, it symbolizes a silent creature that observes, moves among people, and captures what they conceal. From this vantage point, the heroine resembles the cat: she approaches characters, listens to their confessions, and uncovers what lies behind everyday masks. Her search for her novel mirrors a simultaneous quest for a new language to understand her life and confront her fears.