Essam Youssef was born in Cairo in 1965 and is a graduate of the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University. Coming from a family of acclaimed literary figures, Essam has spent most of this decade compiling the realistic novel "1/4 Gram"; a brutally honest insider's account on Egypt's drug world. Relying on events from real life, Salah the narrator in the novel tells the story of a group of friends who try a 1/4 gram for the first time during a party on New Year's Eve.