Nawal El Saadawi's books are known for their powerful denunciation of patriarchy in its many forms: social, political, and religious. Set in an insane asylum, The Innocence of the Devil is a complex and chilling novel that recasts the relationships of God and Satan, of good and evil. Intertwining the lives of two young women as they discover their sexual and emotional powers, Saadawi weaves a dreamlike narrative that reveals how the patriarchal structures of Christianity and Islam are strikingly similar: physical violation of women is not simply a social or political phenomenon, it is a religious one as well.

While more measured in tone than Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, Saadawi's novel is similar in its linguistic, literary, and philosophical richness. Evoking a world of pain and survival that may be unfamiliar to many readers, it speaks in a universal voice that reaches across cultures and is the author's most potent weapon.

Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist, socialist, medical doctor, and writer. Her works include The Hidden Face of Eve (1982) and Memoirs from the Women's Prison (California, 1994). Sherif Hetata, who is married to Saadawi, is a physician and writer who spent thirteen years in prison for speaking out against the Egyptian government. Fedwa Malti-Douglas is Martha C. Kraft Professor of Humanities at Indiana University and the author of Men, Women, and God(s): Nawal El Saadawi and Arab Feminist Poetics (California, 1995).

"Set in a madhouse, this modern passion play portrays Egypt's harsh patriarchal society and its devastating repression of women. Saadawi . . . makes the injustices that take place in her novel's asylum reflect on all of Egypt. . . . A poetic and beautiful novel about a great ugliness—the systematic and widespread oppression of half of Egypt."—Kirkus Reviews

"Egypt's foremost feminist writer again confronts the role of women in Muslim society. . . . Saadawi writes beautifully and in abundant and evocative physical detail of an Egypt that remains closely tied to the land and to a way of life that in many aspects has not changed for centuries."—Publishers Weekly

"A daring, dazzling, and complex work."—Ms.

"More than any other woman, [El Saadawi] has come to embody the trials and tribulations of Arab feminism. . . . The author tackles some of the thorniest problems of theology, leading readers to not only marvel at her verve and vision but also praise the bold brilliance of Saadawi, the ultimate creator of such brave souls."—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"[In this] post-modernist novel of near-poetic density, Saadawi places herself squarely within a tradition of outspoken women who have dared to question the religious as well as the secular foundations of patriarchal authority. Set in a mental institution, the novel combines a realistic portrait of women in patriarchal society with an allegory that amounts to a heretical argument with God. . . . The English rendering conveys a sense of both lightness and weight . . . reminiscent of Milan Kundera’s masterpiece, The Unbearable Lightness of Being." —Washington Post Book World