Some of the pieces take the form of short stories, portraying the hopeless lives of desperately poor families with great compassion. Others are polemics addressed directly to the privileged classes, urging them to open their eyes to the poverty around them and to their own greed. The pieces were first published in the periodical al-Katib al-Masri in 1946, but when they were collected in book form in 1947 the government realized that their social content revealed many of its own shortcomings and banned the book. It was finally published in Lebanon, and was only published in Egypt after the 1952 Revolution.

Taha Hussein (November 14, 1889 - October 28, 1973) was one of the most influential Egyptian writers and intellectuals. He was a figurehead for the modernist movement in Egypt. He earned the title of A'meed al-Adab al-A'raby; Dean of the Arabic literature.