This story spins from a chance find of an anonymous ‘love diary’ written by a young man in the 1940s. It recounts the everyday life of a generation of young men growing up in mid-20^th century Cairo. Ryzova uses Hosni’s story as a point of entry to a particular historical experience: that of middle class modernity located outside the metropolitan centre in this historical ethnography. Ryzova is Lecturer in Middle East History.