Fiction and Drama Yasser Abdellatif He saw Cairo as a cake dripping with delights Huda Lufti, Lines and Knots . 2022, organza fabric and thread. 6 1/4 × 8 5/8". Photo by Mostafa Abdel Aty. Courtesy of the artist and The Third Line, Dubai and Gypsum Gallery, Cairo. Translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger S eventeen years Mohammed Shatta spent in Cairo. His time there ended in what, by the standards of the urban bourgeoisie, was catastrophic failure, but the rapid collapse of his marital and professional life had been set in motion by his own hand. It was as though, by means of the outrages for which he was responsible, he meant to spit on the modest institution whose foundations he had laid in that city, on a life that had him trussed up in ties whose size and strength he had failed to anticipate: his very body hooked to invisible silken threads, as if the Cairene middle class had rewired his limbs and set them dancing, even at home.…