My parents were forced to abandon their home. They didn't make a fuss about it, but that is what happened.

I am wary of the word exile, which is overused and romanticised. My parents were forced to abandon their home. They didn't make a fuss about it, but that is what happened. My father was exiled in the sense that it was too dangerous for him ever to go home again, and he never did. It crushed his spirit, to find himself adrift at such a late stage in life. People do not leave home unless they have no choice. They made a life of sorts for themselves in Cairo, but it was never home, not really, just a temporary haven. Home was here, in this town, in that old house that has now been leveled to the ground.

J. Mahjoub, A line in the river (2018), 306