In Ramadān's novel Awrāq al-narjis (“The leaves of Narcissus”), Kīmī, an Egyptian upper-class girl, travels to Ireland to study for a doctorate in English literature. Kīmī's sense of identity is to a great extent influenced by her experience; when abroad, Kīmī is forced to explain who she is in relation to Egypt. Those around her stereotype her as an Egyptian, an Arab, and a Muslim. Whether she likes it or not, Kīmī is also forced to defend the identity of Egyptians more generally. As was mentioned in Chapter 1, identity is subjective, as well as ideological and habitual. In fact, although she is not overly religious, in the extract above she explains how her religion, Islam, is related to Christianity. In her painful search for one coherent identity for all Egyptians, she loses her mind and ends up in an asylum. In despair, she claims that it is impossible to summarize the “people of Egypt” in a few words or even within the space of a book.