The Romanian writer Panait Istrati (1884-1935) was once among the most popular writers in Europe. He and his work fell out of favor after he published an early denunciation (written with Victor Serge and Boris Souvarine) of the Soviet regime.

_Mediterranean (Sunrise)_, completed in March 1934, is one of Istrati's final novels. It follows the young vagabond Adrien Zograffi as he sails away for the first time from his native Romania. Aboard his steamer, he meets a fellow passenger from steerage, Moussa, a Romanian Jew who is traveling to Alexandria, Egypt, in an attempt to bring a wayward daughter, Sarah, now being pimped by her boyfriend, back into the fold. Adrien and Moussa, both house painters, join forces, and together they travel the Eastern Mediterranean, from Alexandria and Cairo to Beirut and beyond, and are witnesses to and participants in the events that seal Sarah's fate.