Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006) was Egypt’s most eminent writer. Over a career that lasted more than five decades, he wrote thirty-four novels, thirteen short story anthologies, numerous plays and thirty screenplays. His works range from re-imaginings of ancient myths to subtle commentaries on contemporary Egyptian politics and culture. A writer of incredible discipline, every day he wrote for one hour, smoked three cigarettes and walked by the Nile. In 1994, he was stabbed in the neck by religious extremists and was seriously wounded. The injury caused nerve damage that partly paralysed his right hand, preventing him from writing. Of his many novels, his most famous in English translation is The Cairo Trilogy, consisting of Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street. Other notable works include Children of the Alley, The Thief and The Dogs and Autumn Quail. Naguib Mahfouz received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988, the first writer in Arabic to do so.
Praise for Naguib Mahfouz
‘The Arab world’s foremost novelist … Arabic has a rich tradition in poetry, but the novel was not a strong art form until Mahfouz made it accessible.’ New York Times
‘[Mahfouz] populated his works with a cast of memorably strong urban characters. … The result was a body of work that bore comparison with Balzac and Dickens. Mahfouz introduced his audience to a new way of seeing.’ The Economist
‘The world of Naguib Mahfouz is vast and extremely rich. He spans the various changes in the reality, dreams and aspirations of his nation. Although his world is mainly Cairo and the old quarter of Gamaliya in which he spent his childhood, he made the urban scene an elaborate and highly significant metaphor of the national condition.’ Independent
‘Egypt’s greatest living writer … one of the world’s most humane literary figures. Like Zola, Mahfouz chronicled the lives of the most ordinary of his countrymen ... Like Dostoyevsky, he set most of his novels in one beloved city – Cairo, in his case. Like his elders Taha Husayn and Tawfiq al-Hakim, he took on the role of national storyteller.’ The Nation
‘Mahfouz’s work is freshly nuanced and hauntingly lyrical. The Nobel Prize acknowledges the universal significance of [his] fiction.’ Los Angeles Times
‘Mahfouz’s scope is vast and his concerns are not only still evident today, but crucial.’ The Scotsman
Praise for The Cairo Trilogy
‘Luminous … All the magic, mystery and suffering of Egypt in the 1920s are conveyed on a human scale.’ New York Times Book Review
‘It is Mahfouz’s wonderful ability to delineate human beings from their outer appearances which gives Palace Walk its universal appeal. I shall read it again and again.’ The Guardian
‘A masterpiece.’ The Times
‘Teeming with life and contention ... it promises riches.’ Independent
‘Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy puts all contemporary writers in the shade. He is the Arab Tolstoy.’ Simon Sebag Montefiore
‘The alleys, the houses, the palaces and mosques and the people who live among them are evoked as vividly as the streets of London were conjured up by Dickens.’ Newsweek
‘An engrossing work, whose author can take his place alongside any European master you care to name’ Sunday Times
‘A magnificent, Tolstoyan saga ... unmissable.’ Cosmopolitan
‘The Cairo Trilogy extends our knowledge of life; it also confirms it.’ Boston Globe
‘A grand novel of ideas … a marvellous read.’ Washington Post
‘Sugar Street is a marvellous novel, with many messages, open and concealed, for those who will be instructed.’ TLS
‘A masterful kaleidoscope of emotions, ideas and perspective.’ Newsday
‘Mahfouz’s genius is not just that he shows us Egyptian colonial society in all its complexity; it is that he makes us look through the vision of his vivid characters and see people and ideas that no longer seem alien.’ Philadelphia Inquirer