Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd is perhaps the most significant icon of the inner anguish of an entire cultural universe. To repeat the famous title of Andrej Sinjavskij’s prison memoirs, what we are about to listen to is perhaps only “one voice in the choir”, a choir of closed mouths that find it hard to be heard, due to the gags suffocating them and the clamour of those shouting louder. These are glimmers of hope that seem little compared to the dark glow dominating the horizon, but they are also the only seed that under so much rubble is capable of promising a return to life.