The horoscope section wasn't just a piece of paper I handed to the head of the "Letters to the Editor" department at our newspaper. I was more convinced than anyone that the zodiac signs had a real influence on us, on our lives, our relationships with others, and our destinies. I read extensively on astrology, trying to understand its movements, how its intricate relationships were calculated, how it favored us, and how it turned against us. How it was neutral, and how it intervened in our affairs like a storm that uprooted us. *** "Fascinating Wars" is one of my most successful short story collections. It received numerous reviews, articles, and studies, won the Youssef Idris Prize for Short Stories, and critics considered it one of the pinnacles of Egyptian and Arabic fiction. Banipal magazine translated some of its stories into English and Spanish, describing them as "unforgettable."