In this, his autobiography, he traces the course of his life from its vividly evoked beginnings in an Egyptian village to the great climax at the end of 1977. He writes with total frankness, describing his involvement in political assassination with the same detailed clarity as he writes of the plots against Nasser or himself. The characters of the Arab leaders are drawn with incisive skill, without malice, yet making no concessions to tender feelings. Nasser himself emerges as a flawed hero; a man whom the author criticized, opposed, yet never ceased to love. This is the autobiography of an utterly honest man, written when circumstances and his own talents have thrust him to the very forefront of world affairs. It is a document of fascination and real importance.

When Anwar Sadat was appointed President in place of Nasser, the American envoy reported to Washington that he would not last four weeks. That was in October, 1970. Since then he has lived dangerously. He turned on the Russians, who were assumed to be the masters of Egypt, and drove their advisers out of the country. He threw Egypt into a war against Israel, an undertaking which all the pundits assumed must lead to disaster, but came within an ace of confounding them all and bringing off a brilliant victory, when the diplomatic deadlock seemed complete he boldly volunteered to visit Jerusalem and launched an initiative, the reverberations of which will rock the Middle East for many years. It is possible to criticize Sadat’s judgment or to question his tactics, but his courage and the grandeur of his vision are beyond question.