His fourth book, The Yacoubian Building, was translated into 20 languages and sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Arabic and French. His last novel, the bestseller Chicago, takes its title from the American city where he studied for a Master's Degree. He criticized the West, especially for supporting the Egyptian and Saudi regimes. He is a militant of Kifaya, a movement promoting democracy, a social group badly needed to oppose both to dictatorship and Islamic radicals.