In December 2012, El Kamhawi was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for his novel House of the Wolf.

El Kamhawi was born on 23 December 1961 in Sharqia Governorate, Egypt, before graduating from high school he had articles published for him in the Al Gomhuria newspaper.

After graduating from the department of journalism in the Faculty of Mass Communications, Cairo University, he started working for Al-Akhbar, where he helped establish Akhbar Al-Adab 10 years later, a widely known literature magazine.

People real and shadowy, strong slaves and emperors have met their doom at the gates of the City of Pleasure.

Eventually the gates of the impenetrable city succumbs under the charm of two ingenious commodities: fried potatoes and pepsi-cola.