Note publique d'information : The Beginning and the End opens with the death of Kamel Effendi, the father of the
Kamel family in Cairo, whose death leaves his wife, daughter, and three sons to survive
in near-poverty. The family not only grieves the loss of their patriarch, but also
the loss of the income he earned as a low ranking government official. While the sons
finish school, Nefisa, the daughter, must become a paid dressmaker, and Samira, the
widow, struggles to make ends meet. It is not dignified for women in this society
to work outside the home, a truth the family is well aware of. Though the reader is
never introduced to Kamel Effendi as a character, the significance of his death haunts
the rest of the novel.
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