In May 2013, Nick Pugliese, the only American to have played professional soccer in Afghanistan, helped Kabul’s Ferozi F.C. win the city-wide championship.

Alaa al-Aswany, a prominent Egyptian writer with a broad array of interests and accomplishments, is a lively man with a penchant for playful conversation. I sat down with him one spring afternoon in his Brooklyn apartment, and was easily drawn into the world he conjured, one small detail at a time.

In the 1970s, an African-American Muslim eclipsed Superman as the quintessential American male. Muhammad Ali still reminds us what it's all about.