" This room was our ivory tower, Sihem and mine. No one else was ever admitted here. Sometimes we'de come here to commune with our silence and reactivate our senses, dulled and blunted by the noises of every day. We'd bring a book or put on some music, and then we were off. We read Kafka as well as Khalil Gibran, and listened to Oum Kalthoum and Pavarotti with the same grattitude.... "

― Yasmina Khadra , The Attack