Product Description
At the center of Khufu’s Wisdom, Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s majestic first novel, is the legendary Fourth Dynasty monarch Khufu (Cheops), for whom the Great Pyramid of Giza was built.

When a seer prophesies the end of Khufu’s dynasty and the ascension to the throne of Djedefra, son of the High Priest of Ra, the pharaoh must battle to preserve his legacy against the will of the Fates. But in the face of the inexorable attraction between Djedefra and Princess Meresankh, Khufu’s beautiful daughter, Khufu must consider not only his personal ambition and the opposing decree of the heavens, but also how the wisdom he prides himself on as a ruler will guide him in determining the fate of his daughter’s heart. ... Read more

Product Description
This unusual epic from the Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz portrays five generations of one sprawling family against the upheavals of two centuries of modern Egyptian history.

Set in Cairo, Morning and Evening Talk traces three related families from the arrival of Napoleon to the 1980s, through short character sketches arranged in alphabetical order. This highly experimental device produces a kind of biographical dictionary, whose individual entries come together to paint a vivid portrait of life in Cairo from a range of perspectives. The characters include representatives of every class and human type and as the intricate family saga unfolds, a powerful picture of a society in transition emerges. This is a tale of change and continuity, of the death of a traditional way of life and the road to independence and beyond, seen through the eyes of Egypt's citizens. Naguib Mahfouz's last chronicle of Cairo is both an elegy to a bygone era and a tribute to the Egyptian spirit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"A man's value is in his money."
(A star rating is not appropriate for this "novel," which is really not a novel in the traditional sense.)Written in 1987, this last entry in the Cairo series by Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz has no beginning, middle, and end, and no real plot.There are no standard chronology and no strong individual characters who develop fully during the action.Modeled on traditional Arab biographical dictionaries, which recorded the lives of influential citizens in single-paragraph entries, this is Mahfouz's most experimental novel.Here he arranges sixty-seven character sketches according to the Arab alphabetical order of the characters' first names, creating a series of short personal anecdotes which reveal lives and convey the history of three Cairo families from the Napoleonic wars through the death of Anwar Sadat.

The book begins with the death of a child, an episode which is recalled near the end of the book, and as the child's family is recreated, in random order by alphabet, the novel ripples out, incorporating different eras and other families, over four or five generations.Showing the progression of Egyptian political change, Mahfouz moves (non-chronologically) from the entrance of Napoleon into Cairo in 1798to the British Occupation from 1882 - 1952;the 1919 Revolution against the British occupation;the Free Officer's movement, founded by Gamal Abdel Nasser, leading to the July Revolution of 1952;the Tripartite Aggression (the Suez Crisis) of 1956, in which Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt for nationalizing the Suez canal; the Six Day Warof 1967, in which Israel attacked Egypt;the War of Attrition from 1967 - 70 between Egypt and Israel; and the Yom Kippur War of 1973, in which Egypt and Syria attempted to recapture land lost to Israel in the Six Day War.

As much as the book may be about political change, however, it is at least, if not more, about marriage and its importance in the culture. Throughout these generations, members of the same family intermarry to protect inheritance and wealth, but other marriages are also arranged among other "appropriate" families.The women are educated, at least at the level of literacy, and as time moves toward the present, the wives are often educated professionals--lawyers or physicians--who move easily between Egyptian and European cultures.A few of the individual family members move to other parts of the world--Germany, the United States, France, and Saudi Arabia, returning often to Cairo, despite their absences for significant periods of time.And while some of the characters may be passionately committed to some of the political movements of the day (and others may oppose them just as passionately), none of them are religious extremists.

Readers new to Mahfouz will probably want to start elsewhere for their introduction, perhaps with the more traditional The Cairo Trilogy or even Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth, written just two years before this novel.Written when Mahfouz was an old man reflecting on history and the meaning of being Egyptian, this novel can be tedious and sometimes frustrating.The characters' names are often very similar, making it difficult to remember who is who, and the lives of many characters resemble those of other characters and do not add significant new information.Still, likean impressionistic or pointillist painting, the individualbiographies provide color and interest, which, taken together, give a picture of a broad cross section of Egyptian society dealing, over time, with the winds of change. n Mary Whipple

Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy), Book 1
Palace of Desire (Cairo Trilogy), Book 2
Sugar Street (The Cairo Trilogy), Book 3
Children of the Alley: A Novel
Three Novels of Ancient Egypt: Khufu's Wisdom, Rhadopis of Nubia, Thebes at War (Everyman's Library)

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Product Description
A new volume of three novels–previously published separately by Anchor–by Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Together with The Beggar, The Thief and The Dogs, and Autumn Quail (published by Anchor in December 2000), these novels represent a comprehensive collection of Mahfouz’s artful meditations on post-revolution Egypt.Diverse in style and narrative technique, they render a nuanced and universally resonant vision of modern life in the Middle East.

Respected Sir, “a latter-day Bleak House in Arabic” (The New York Times), revisits a familiar theme–vaulting ambition–in a powerful and religious metaphor. Wedding Song, “one of Mahfouz’s most enjoyable works” (The Chicago Tribune), is a psychological drama, focusing on how four very different kinds of minds apprehend and reckon with the realities that surround them. The Search is a powerful, lurid, and compelling story of lust, greed, and murder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good seller
This book was in perfect condition when I received it. Fast shipping and no hassle.

Three Egyptian tales
In Respected Sir we get to know the son of a cart driver in Cairo, Othman Bayyumi. He starts working as a clerk at the eighth grade in the government and ends up at the splendid position of His Excellency the Director General. Though Othman shows great will and great ambition and thus has a successful career he remains a lonely man till the end of his life. Mr Mahfouz shows that a certain cold-heartedness is necessary for a man to be respected for his piety, diligence and rectitude and the price to pay for such a way is solitude.
Wedding Song is the sad tale of Abbas Karam Younis, actor and later playwright, who within a few months disowns his disgraced parents, marries Tahia and has a son called Taher. Then Abbas decides to write his play called Afrah al-Qubbah using his imagination to create a protagonist through which he can confess and do penance. He thus uses art as a means of battle and rebellion against people born and bread in sin. The structure of the plot is original: the same events are told in 4 chapters by 4 different characters - Tariq Ramun, a fellow actor working at the same theatre as Abbas, Karam Younis, Abbas's father, Halima al-Kabsh, Abbas's mother and finally Abbass's own account.
In The Search Saber's mother Basima Omran is an ageing prostitute who has just spent five years in prison in Alexandria. Saber has never seen his father yet he knows his name which is printed on his birth certificate: Sayed el-Rheimy. After his mother's death, Saber decides to try to find his father in Cairo. During his long search Saber realises that it is his fate to follow his mother's footsteps and soon deceit and crime tarnish his life.

Hidden Jewel
Mahfouz is one of the greatest contemporary writers we have overlooked.An anecdote I want to share.I was diligently browsing through the literature/fiction section at a local bookstore and looking for Mahfouz.Disappointed.Looked in the world literature section and again disappointed.No luck in the translated literature section either.Why would a representative Egyptian writer be such inadvertently left out?I spoke to the info desk about Mahfouz and magically, a whole section that featured Mahfouz and his works were set up a few days later!

Respected Sir/Wedding Song/The Search came out just before the winter break.The new edition consists of three novels by Mahfouz that demonstrate unique writing style.I was quickly drawn into the book after flipping over ten pages or so.Mahfouz writes very succinctly and elegantly.His plots usually begin with a very usual setting.But there is also an element of suspense.You will keep on reading not because you know something is going to happen, but becuase things combine to hold you fast.

Respected Sir talks about how a government clerk sacrifices all comfort and breaks all family ties to ascend in rank.His eternal goal is that he will become the Director of Administration (Level 1) in the government.The narrative authenticates how we desire for power and attain such power against all odds.

Wedding Song involves a whole different writing style.The story features a montage, re-telling of the same story in the persepctives of 4 characters.Psychologucal suspense dominates the mood of the piece as, the main characters, twist back and forth between virtuality and reality.You will unveil the "true story" that was masked and concealed by what the characters perceive the story to be.

The Search tells of the story of a criminal searching for his long-lost father.The sexual desire, the filler of loneliness, and fear interweaves with his longing for his father.Mahfouz has wriiten three brilliant pieces that delineates human emotions.Hidden jewel in modern/contemporary literature. ... Read more

Product Description
For Naguib Mahfouz, Cairo has always been a place of special resonance, a city he loves passionately and has revisited in his writings. Photographer Britta Le Va, a longtime admirer of the novels of Mahfouz, guides us through his pages and treads his streets to produce a collection of visual images of the city. Each complements a verbal image selected from Mahfouzs writings. In his introduction, novelist Gamal al-Ghitani describes a walking tour with the novelist through the streets of Gamaliya, the heart of the old city where both of themmore than thirty years apartwere born and raised. Mahfouz reminisces and remarks on what has changed and what has not in eight decades ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Nice collection of Photos
I found this to be a nice collection of photographs detailing the Old Cairo featured in Naguib Mahfouz's stories, mostly the Palace Walk trilogy.It would be handy to have it as a companion while reading the novels to familiarize you with setting.For those readers with some familiarity with Cairo, this collection leaves us wanting.For example many photographs are only loosely related to sites in the novels.I would have preferred a more closer connection.A map would have also been valuable.The introductions by al-Ghitany were interesting but brief and rather superficial.It's a good book to borrow from the library but I wouldn't pay to own it.

Mostly for Naguib Mahfouz fans
I am not such a fan of Naguib Mahfouz's stories. I have read some of his books and I liked them, but I am not crazy about him. However, this book offers his fans a chance to look through pictures at the most usual places described in his novels and this makes the book interesting and worth looking at. But it is not a photo-guide book of pictures as I have imagined it was before buying it. On the whole, if you have read many novels of this writer and are familiar with the Cairo shown in them and want a glimpse at real buildings and streets, I recommend this book. ... Read more

Product Description
In this gripping and suspenseful novella from the Egyptian Nobel Prize-winner, three young friends survive interrogation by the secret police, only to find their lives poisoned by suspicion, fear, and betrayal.

At a Cairo café in the 1960s, a legendary former belly dancer lovingly presides over a boisterous family of regulars, including a group of idealistic university students. One day, amid reports of a wave of arrests, three of the students disappear: the excitable Hilmi, his friend Ismail, and Ismail's beautiful girlfriend Zaynab. When they return months later, they are apparently unharmed and yet subtly and profoundly changed. It is only years later, after their lives have been further shattered, that the narrator pieces together the young people's horrific stories and learns how the government used them against one another. In a riveting final chapter, their torturer himself enters the Café and sits among his former victims, claiming a right to join their society of the disillusioned. Now translated into English for the first time, Naguib Mahfouz's tale of the insidious effects of government-sanctioned torture and the suspension of rights and freedoms in a time of crisis is shockingly contemporary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Politics, news of arrests and imprisonments
This short novel is built on major specific Egyptian political events, but the author's immense literary craft lifts its themes on a universal platform.

Political regime and social atmosphere
The great hope generated by Nasser's revolution in 1952 (symbolized here by a band of young people) is squashed by the new political strongmen intoxicated by their unchallenged social power.
`A terrifying force operating completely outside the dictates of law and human values' created a sinister Stasi-State: `Our glorious revolution had turned into a siege. We were all living in an area of unseen powers - spies hovering in the very air we breathed. We began to be suspicious of everything even the walls and the tables.'
Why this revolution, `if people were so feeble and downtrodden that they had no personal rights, no honour, no security?'
The regime raped the revolution (the young) and turned its population into pimps and prostitutes.

Political message
Naguib Mahfouz shouts his still highly relevant message loudly and clearly: a total disavowal of autocracy and dictatorship, of any resort to force or violence; rely on the principles of freedom and respect for your fellow human beings; learn from the Western civilization the values of science and of the scientific method.

Technically, the author uses again the Rashomon-construction as in his novel `Miramar'. But here, however, the main characters don't express their own viewpoint on the main incidents, but reveal and clarify the main aspects of the bloody treason of the `glorious' revolution.

With shocking scenes and in forceful prose Naguib Mahfouz condemns a cold political regime without freedom, respect and love.
Highly recommended to all lovers of world literature and all fans of Naguib Mahfouz.

lost in translation
I bought this book at random but with high hopes. I have a feeling that a lot was lost in translation...many of the sentences were awkward, and the word choice was out-of-place enough to interrupt my reading. If I were to do it all again, perhaps I would do a bit of research on the late '60s in Egyptin order to get a bit more out of this very political novella.

A Many Faceted Gem
Naghib Mahfouz's novella, Karnak Café, is gem-like in its density, clarity, and ability to transform the ordinary light of day into glittering reflections that startle and bewitch the observer/reader.

Gems can be enhanced or obscured by their settings, knowing a bit about the setting from which Karnak Café emerges intensifies the luminosity of this short and potent book.Naghib Mahfouz, both loved and hated in the Arab world, is a Nobel Prize winning author with less recognition in the West than he deserves.A lifetime Egyptian patriot and political activist, he is also an accomplished student of human nature, and known for the psychological depth of his characters.A man of integrity and great personal courage (which has resulted in fatwas that put a death sentence on his head), he has very publically defended Salman Rushdie's right to publish, despite feeling that Rushdie is deeply disrespectful to the Islamic faith.

Karnak's Café addresses torture, and it addresses the consequences of fanatical adherence to political and/or religious ideologies.Its simple story of friends meeting for years in a café plumbs the depths of the pernicious effects of torture, and takes a sidelong look at the nature of love. The café clientele, over the years, fall in and out of love, ponder Egyptian politics, and suffer the agony of Egypt's crushing defeat in the Six Day War of 1967. Central to the tale is the repeated disappearance of a group of three young patrons, who are subjected to government interrogation and torture. Told from the point of view of one of the café regulars, the story reaches a climax when the torturer himself becomes a café regular.

To say much more would rob the reader of the richness of the tale, but one further comment is fair to make:Solzhenitsyn would have loved this book.Solzhenitsyn felt that the line between good and evil divides every human heart, a position that denies us the comfort of being able to clearly identify evil and subsequently compartmentalize it safely distant from our own souls.If there is a more honest or succinct examination of the shadows that race across the hearts of humans, and the eclipses that periodically darken our souls than Karnak Café, I can not recall it.

The last gleam that this gem radiates is a brief, intense philosophical summation of all that can be learned from the collective experiences of the patrons, and the nation of Egypt.The words spill from the lips of a patron with unique power to speak them.Copyrighted in 1974, the words spoken in the closing paragraphs of Karnak Café remain resounding as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close.

Lastly, the concept of a group of intimate friends meeting on a daily basis in a café over a span of years....what price would many of us pay for such a pleasure!

When Peace is More Risky than War
This stunning novella is a marvelous treatise which moves beyond modern Egypt's political struggles into a morality tale in which the questions of loyalty vs. betrayal, love vs. fear, peace vs. war, among others, are addressed.Also examined is the concept of whether peace and patriotism enforced by torture is better than all-out war.The "family" of the Karnak Cafe is torn asunder when 3 of its young student customers are repeatedly kidnapped and held as political prisoners, returning each time changed irrevocably, their youthful idealism compromised by a harsh reality.They must betray their friends or suffer the consequences.They are each tested and no matter their actions, they hate themselves as a result.When their torturer comes to the cafe to confront his accusers, his thoughts reveal as much about the world in which they must all find a place as they do about his motives and actions.This is, on the surface, a simple story. But like all great stories, it has a depth that causes the reader to ponder the greater questions it raises.Thought-provoking and emotional.Excellent tale for our times.

"What was the point of [progress] if people were so feeble that they were not worth a fly, if they had no personal rights."
(4.5 stars) In this powerful novella by Naguib Mafouz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, a narrator stops in at the Karnak Café, an off-the-beaten-path café in Cairo run by Qurunfula, a former belly dancer, who raised her craft to the level of true art.Recognizing her immediately, he stays, seduced by the atmosphere and by the charm of a small group of regulars--three old men, three young people, and the PR director of a company--who visit the café every day and create their own urban "family."

Written in 1974 and newly translated by Roger Allen, the story takes place in the mid-1960s and focuses on the café regulars as they respond to key moments in contemporary Egyptian history. For the young people, "history began with the 1952 Revolution," in which the army, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, overthrew King Farouk, abolished the pro-British monarchy, and established a republic. The three young people and their fates become the focus of the narrator when the young people inexplicably disappear for several months, They return, changed, only to disappear again. While they are gone, Egypt is defeated in the Six Day War of 1967 with Israel.

Mahfouz develops tremendous suspense about the outcomes of the regulars of the Karnak Café, at the same time that he creates an intense look at the pressures placed upon them as they try to do what they think is right. The "family" atmosphere, which is so dominant at the beginning of the story, slowly dissipates as speculation develops about the fates of the young people. Changing points of view keep the perspective on events constantly changing and the interest in the outcome high. The taboos of the society become obvious, and the young people's faith in the future of the revolution of 1952 is put to the test. Ultimately, they must consider whether "peace is more risky than war." Their individual lives cease to exist in the aftermath of their trauma, and their ability to trust is gone forever.

Mafouz recreates in a mere one hundred pages an historical record of a country yearning to be free, at the same time that he depicts the movements against individual freedom which are also evolving.The young people he creates here are ordinary college students, though all of them have overcome far more than the average western college student will ever dream of.Though they insist that they still believe in the future of the revolution of 1952, their experience less than fifteen years later, shows them and the reader just how far they have left to go.Dynamic, powerful, and thought-provoking, this novella carries an impact--and modern relevance--that the reader will not soon forget.nMary Whipple

Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth A Novel
The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library)
Children of the Alley: A Novel
Cairo Modern
Arabian Nights and Days: A Novel
Miramar


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Product Description
Ashur al-Nagi, a man of humble origins, becomes a legendary leader among his people, but his subsequent descendants, through decadence and rivalry, lose touch with Ashur's glory, until one family member learns a lesson in strength. Reprint. K. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Amazon Take Care
Amazon, in your Editorial Review Section, you've included an editorial review that essentially tells the whole book's plot. This should be scrutinized as it creates a true disincentive to read a book, if one knows the plot. I believe this is an outlier. With movie reviews one can come to expect the ending to be provided but with book reviews, please take care to talk about the tone, the flavor, the "back drop", the psychology, but the actual events in plot order--No No No avoid this, review the "reviews".Please take care and as a long term customer, please pre-review the editorial reviews to insure you are not succombing to newspaper like book reviews. I use Amazon because it's much like shelf shopping (live shopping) but if it loses this quality, i.e. the last pages of a book are somehow leaked, then Amazon has lost its charm and done a great author (and the readers) a true disservice.

Mahfouz: Master Story Teller

The place is Cairo. The time is unknown but pre-modern. There is no technology and carts and carriages get the poor and rich around (respectively). It is post-Mohammed; Muslim is a faith and not a political philosophy. There are bars selling alcohol and women are not covered. Women can and do own businesses, and manipulate their husbands into divorcing them.

Ashur Al-Nagy, through a twist of fate, becomes the chief of the neighborhood.This office can be taken by force, or popularity, and entitles the holder to security payments from the rich and poor. There is vague judiciary role.The holder can really exploit the poor (the Harafish) who pay, clean the chief's house and bring food, etc.

Ashur, who before chiefhood, worked hard and led an unassuming life. He had some stains: he was a foundling (probably a love child); he divorced a devoted wife to marry a prostitute who worked in a bar and he spent year in jail for acts of kindness and generosity.He served as chief withfairness and distinction. His administration is a legend that looms over the Harafish and his progeny as do the interpretations of his life and the legacies of his successive generations.

Within this family saga about wealth, power, poverty and madness are parables about leadership, government, family, jealousy, sex roles, etc.To name a few:Leadership taken by force is hard to get rid of. Good leadership is rare and ususally those led have to demand it. Good government is fragile. Confined sex and courtship roles promote dishonesty and can wreck whole lives. Money doesn't buy happiness.

There are some strong female portraits.One female Nagy, Zahira, manipulates herself to a position of great power.

Interestingly, one generation of Nagys loses its wealth and moves to a family tomb.Cairo's City of the Dead is said to be populated by servants of the wealthy.I never thought these homeless would be fallen notables themselves.

The book ends with some hope because a new Ashur has an eye to the future.

I like the format of the book.Each chapter is its own story comprised of numbered substories.For those who don't know Mahfouz, this is an excellent introduction. His masterpiece, The Cairo Trilogy, is similarly a family saga but set in more modern times with deeper analysis of the characters.

The Harafish
Naguib Mahfouz' 1977 novel, "The Harafish," is an intriguing mix of allegory and saga.The term "harafish" refers to the large underclass of poor and downtrodden in an Egyptian city, presumably Cairo.The novel focuses upon the sufferings and the fortunes of the harafish and upon the history of a particular family, the Al-Nagis, over the course of generations. The story has a timeless quality with the author giving few details that identify either a specific place or a specific time.Yet, the novel succeeds in bringing the characters to life as individuals and in creating a sense of place.

The book is told in ten chapters, each recounting successive adventures that befall the Al-Nagis.Each chapter is subdivided into many short paragraphs.The story moves forward with simplicity but becomes increasingly complex as it unfolds.

There is a great deal of indirection in the book.The reader learns slowly by seeing and not by being told.Thus, Mafouz never explicitly explains the "clan" system at the heart of the book but rather shows the reader how it works.The "clan" is the informal ruler of an "alley" or section of a town.It can be analogized to an American gang or to a crime syndicate but enjoys quasi-official status.It accepts "protection" money, wars with neighboring gangs, keeps a semblance of order in the alley, and is headed by an all-powerful chief.Some of the religious leaders of the community are closely allied with the clan.The "alley" includes not only the many poor people, but rich and successful individuals as well, called the "notables".Most, but not all of the clan leaders ally themselves with the notables while exploiting the harafish.

The chief character of Mafouz' tale is Ashur al-Nagi, a foundling who ultimately rises to the position of clan chief.Although he ultimately marries a prostitute and appropriates property that is not his, Ashur becomes a legend in the alley as a result of his compassion, strength, and protection of the harafish.His son, Shams-al-Din continues, for the most part, in the path of Ashur, but the family then deteriorates and its worst traits come to the fore.Its members, men and women, descend into murder, corruption and licentiousness.They move in and out of positions of power and are forever haunted by the fame of their illustrious ancestor.At the end of the book, another Ashur arises and restores and enhances upon the family name.

Mahfouz' story unfolds with detail and with a deep compassion for the poor and the weak.There is a sense of human frailtyand of the overriding force of change.There are several themes suggested by the story.First, there is the sense of decline, reminding me of charismatic figures who found religion or social movements which soon fall into torpitude.The story opens with something of a golden age with heroic figures and deeds.As it progresses, human life slips into the mundane.I also found in the book the suggestion that people tend to look too much to the alleged glorious deeds of their ancestors and judge themselves and their own potentialities falsely in their light.Mid-way in the story, one of the characters is reproached because the al-Nagi's view themselves in light of their founder, Ashur, and not in light of what they themselves can do.At the end, there is a deepening of the story.The final al-Nagi we meet, also named Ashur is said to be greater than his forbearer because "the first Ashur had relied on his own strength, while [the second Ashur] had made the harafish into an invincible force".While the first Ashur had conquered the evils of slum life, the second Ashur had achieved an even greater conquest: "his victory over himself". The second Ashur achieves a moment of spiritual awakening at the end.

This is a fine book, both in its description of places, characters and societies and in the meditation it offers on the human condition.

Robin Friedman

an illuminating book
The story style was new to me and at first I had trouble getting used to the pace and the simple (almost childlike, unsophisticated) writing. But, you soon realize that the author is a very intelligent and perspicacious person and continually surprises you with his analysis of human beings. I was particularly struck by the manner in which he picked the defining character trait of each person and skillfully built the chapter around it. I was also impressed by the aptness and beauty of his metaphors. As I kept reading about successive generations, I began to wonder how I would end such a narrative and I couldn't come to any satisfactory conclusion. So when I reached Mr. Mahfouz's ending, I was suitably floored. In all, a very beautifully structured and written story.

Like a fairy tale from childhood
Mahfouz is not well knowin America, but should be. The Harafish is the epic novel of the al-Nagi family who rules a particularalley in Egypt over multiple generations. (The "harafish" refers to the common people of that same alley). The book's chapters each encompass a generation of leadership by some descendant of the original Ashur as-Nagi, a gentle and pure physical giant, filled with pious and spirit-filled humility. His off-spring, and theirs as well, vary widely in their emulation of this great man and their stories are fascinating and quite unique. Each story's characters are vividly painted for the reader and all of the generations their good guys and bad guys. The entire book will captivate the reader and the simplicity of the read will remind you of books you read in childhood. However, the story themes are not to be thought of as childish- but rather as timeless and transcultural. Greed, piety, fidelity, cunning, love, lust, faith, and compassion all rolled together in an easily read documentary of one family's influence on many. An absolute joy to read. Mahfouz is one of my favorites! ... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1956, this is a powerfulportrayal of a middle-class Egyptian family confrontedby material, moral, and spiritual problems during World War II. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

The fall of an ambitious egoist
The character of the unscrupulous careerist is a recurring type in Naguib Mahfouz's novels (e.g. 'His Excellency').
Here, a son of an impoverished family is haunted by a boundless ambition. He forgets all the favors he received earlier from other members of his family. His older brother reminds him that, 'although my life is in no way exemplary, I could keep the specter of hunger away which lurked on our family. I gave your brother the money required to find a job in public service and provided yourself with the first installment of the tuition for your studies in the army.'
But, now he considers his brother's criminal behavior and dissolution as a barrier against his prospects for a dazzling career in the army. He despises his sister, because she is only a seamstress. The other son, a civil servant, tries to be the arbiter in the family disputes, but to no avail. The careerist also breaks with his girlfriend because of her `low' standing and begins to court a girl from the high bourgeoisie. Meanwhile, tensions rise within the family.

This book was a huge success in Egypt and was later adapted as a TV sitcom. It is an in depth character study of a super egoist who with his blind ambition runs the risk of ruining the lives of all his family members.

Highly recommended reading for all fans of Naguib Mahfouz and lovers of world literature.

One of the all-time greats...
I read this years ago, but it continues to haunt me.I went on to read his other popular family novels, and loved every single one of them, too.I find that I am always looking for books by him, about him, fiction and nonfiction. He has had a tremendous influence on my life and my own writing.He has motivated me to write stories that have what I would call metaphysical 'weight.'This novel is a great tragedy, and, yes, sad, but with his other books comes humor, too - a wry look atwell-defined characters.The man is a metaphorical magician, I might add.Reading him is like riding the scales with a great opera star.Read everything by this stand-out writer.You can't go wrong.

The most depressing Mahfouz novel
Not a book I'd recommend for those who haven't read Mahfouz yet. This is certainly the most depressing of his books.His other stories also have the 'despite all our efforts we're doomed to failure' sense to them, but this totally takes the cake. :)Read it after you've become acquainted with other Mahfouz novels like 'Midaq Alley' or 'The Miramir'.

A Classic Tragedy
It is so fascinating to read these reviews. How differently we all see things. I do appreciate some of the commentary here, such as those who spot problems with the translation and see overt politicizing from Mahfouz in this work. However, this book so captivated me, and the writing style is easy and fluid (I hate convoluted writing, and this is not like that at all). From the opening pages to the end, I was riveted by the plight of the Kamel family as they struggled through a life of poverty and humiliation in Cairo after the passing of their father/husband. Each of the characters just made my heart ache, and this was especially true of Nefisa. Poor Nefisa! And what courage she had, really. She deserved such a better life, as they all did.

This is a classic tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. I really recommend it, and look forward to reading the Trilogy, which is waiting for me on the shelf.

Interesting story of a family divided
"The Beginning and the End" is the story of the Kamel family in mid-1940's Egypt, left in poverty by the death of the father.Left to fend for themselves are the mother, Samira, her daughter Nefisa, and three sons, Hassan, Hussein and Hassanein.Hassan is a ne'er-do-well, a thug and drug dealer who lives on the margins of society.Hussein is a fundamentally decent individual, quiet, hardworking, caring and empathetic.We like him a lot better than his younger brother Hassanein, an arrogant, conceited go-getter and social climber who carves himself out a promising career in the military and doesn't care who he tramples on to reach his goals.The tragic figure in this family is the daughter Nefisa, cursed with a homely face that makes marriage an unlikely prospect, and doubly cursed with a rampant sexual appetite that has no sanctioned outlet whatever for an unmarried woman in a muslim society.Hassanein has no problem dumping his fiancee at the drop of a hat when he decides her family isn't of the class he aspires to belong to; he will disown his brother Hassan rather than be connected to petty criminal.But he's brought up short against his sister's descent into prostitution, and his solution shows him in all his appalling soullessness."The Beginning and the End" shows us a family and a society torn apart by the conflict between tradition and modernity, especially in its depictions of a society in which women's lives are so circumscribed that they have nothing to look forward to except a marriage that may never materialize.Mahfouz is not a very profound writer, but his sympathy for his characters, including the most degraded, is evident; he empathizes, never moralizes, and shows us a convincing picture of a family in torment.I thought the translation was a good one; it's not stilted or overdone and it flows easily from one chapter to the next.Mahfouz has given us in this book an intriguing story of a family divided against itself. ... Read more

Product Description
Anchor proudly presents a new omnibus volume of three novels--previously published separately by Anchor--by Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Assembled here is a collection of Mahfouz's artful meditations on the vicissitudes of post-Revolution Egypt. Diverse in style and narrative technique, together they render a rich, nuanced, and universally resonant vision of modern life in the Middle East.

The Beggar is a complex tale of alienation and despair. In the aftermath of Nasser's revolution, a man sacrifices his work and family to a series of illicit love affairs. Released from jail in post-Revolutionary times, the hero ofThe Thief and the Dogs blames an unjust society for his ill fortune, eventually bringing himself to destruction. Autumn Quail is a tale of moral responsibility, isolation, and political downfall about a corrupt bureaucrat who is one of the early victims of the purge after the 1952 revolution in Egypt.

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Customer Reviews (5)

Three tales of post revolutionary Egypt
The Beggar is the story of lawyer Omar al-Hamzawi who belongs to the generation that could have provided Egypt with leadership but have instead been deprived of any significant function. Omar fails to care enough at the right time because he belongs to a liberal secularism which is simply an operative ideal or yearning. The novel is a plea against irrelevance and alienation. It is also about things which matter and matter in places outside the Arab world.
The Thief and the Dogs is a psychological novel of the impressionist kind - it uses the stream-of-consciousness technique like novels by James Joyce or Virginia Woolf - which moves with the speed and economy of a detective story. The technique allows the author to show the mental anguish of the central character, Said Mahran, who is consumed by bitterness and a desire for revenge against the individuals and the society who have corrupted and destroyed him and brought his damnation. It gives the reader a keen observation of the workings of a sick and embittered mind doomed to self-destruction. As he comes to Said's disillusionment and despair, the reader gains interesting impressions of the values and structures of Egyptian society in the 1960s.
Autumn Quail opens with the famous Cairo fire which followed the massacre of Egyptian policemen at the Suez Canal by British soldiers in 1952. It goes on to trace the main events of the early stages of the revolution, the purge of corrupt officials and the abolition of political parties and comes to an end after the nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company in 1956. The central character whose fall is portrayed is Isa ad-Dabbagh, a senior civil servant in the Egyptian government during the final days of the monarchy. Isa's willingness to accept bribes catches up with him and he is pensioned off. But Isa remains stubbornly loyal to the old regime and his concern for his country makes him a true patriot. But his relationship with the Alexandrian prostitute Riri represents Isa's real fight with emotion, his failure to meet his moral responsibilities and his eventual realisation through a very bitter lesson of what those responsibilities are. The novel provides the reader with insights and reflections on the Egyptian revolution and its progress with characters from different backgrounds and with varying social and political attitudes.

Hope and disillusionment in post-revolutionary Egypt
This is a collection of three short stories (novellas) written by the Nobel Prize winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz.All three are set in 1950s Egypt.Mahfouz is best known for his Cairo Trilogy, but this collection is equally outstanding.The highlight on the back cover perfectly describes the three stories:``. . . together these novels render a rich, nuanced, and universally resonant vision of Egyptian society of the period.''. This is an wonderful collection that will be of interest to potential readers, I believe, at two levels.First, Mahfouz perfectly captures the spirit of hope, uncertainty, and disillusionment in an Egypt that is undergoing massive political and cultural change.These novellas represent a window into the social and cultural history of Egypt in the 1950s.As the introduction describes, these three novels are a thinly disguised commentary on the Egyptian government and its failure to live up to the hopes and promises of 1952.Beyond Egypt, however, most readers will relate to these stories as they are, to a greater or lesser degree, about living with and coping with change.It is this latter aspect which makes these stories timeless and of general interest.These stories are about distinguishing what is from what we would like from what is possible, and acceptance or resistance to the way things are.This is great literature from a great writer and highly recommended.

Awesome! But I don't know if it's good translated
I actually only read "The Thief and the Dogs" and I loved it! The story was thought provoking and the sequence was logical and filled with suspense. The only thing that you should worry about is that I read the story in its original Arabic version. Therfore, I can't guarantee that same level of suspense here. However, I also did not read the translated version so I can't make a proper judgement about it. The only thing I could say that "Al-los wal kilab" or "The Theif and The Dogs" is a true classic . One that will be remembered for generations and generations. Truly a wonderful masterpiece!

Socio-political impact from the Revolution
The underlying theme in the Trilogy details with courage and delicacy the crisis of identity and conscience suffered by the Egyptian intellectuals during the period of malice and dissatisfaction. It is a nice read for anyone wanting to understand the fame of mind of Egyptian society at that time.

WoW , this is really worth buying
First of all the price is really very cheap for this 3 books but .. i really dont think it is a good idea to put this three titles in one book , simply because the 3 books have no relation to each other , or actually each of them may get more relation to other books by the same author , more than the other two that the publisher added to it , well o guess they did so just for " size purposes :) " for example : the beggar ; u could consider it a part of another Trilogy for mahfouz i consider this second triology : " awlad haretna " , "altareek ", and "the beggar" or " alshahat " it is the triology of searching for the Father "GOD" in awlad haretna he looked for him in history , in prophets and even in the newest prophet : sciencein "altareek " or " the way" ; he tried to find a way to look for the lost father deep inside people in the "beggar" ; he got away from symbolism and start to be more surrealist and beg God ! soooooooooooooooooooo... it might be better if the publisher added 3 different titles that got relation to each other in this book :) but again : it really worth buyingAHHH , by the way : mahfouz is my favourite egyptian writer ... Read more

Product Description
Known and loved throughout Egypt as a work that celebrates the national character, Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s Thebes at War tells of a high point in Egyptian history–ancient Egypt’s defeat of Asiatic foreigners who had dominated northern Egypt for two hundred years.

With a visit from a court official and a provocative insult, the southern pharaoh’s long simmering resentment boils over, leading him to commit himself and his heirs to an epic struggle for the throne. Filled with the grand clash of armies, staggering defeats, daring escapes, and glorious victories, and written at a time when Egypt was again under the sway of foreign powers, Thebes at War is a resounding call to remember Egypt’s long and noble history.


From the Trade Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Historical fiction for Ancient Egypt
This book reads like a Young Adult novel, which might be one the reasons it is part of the curriculum for students in Egypt (per the introduction).The style was basic and the descriptions of battles was repetitive.I felt like I was reading a novelized version of an Ancient Egyptian palette. However that does not mean the book was horrible.It has its exciting moments.It is my first foray into a novel about Ancient Egypt and it helped as a springboard into understanding some history of the dynasties and periods of Egyptian history.You might find it a good introduction to Egyptian history that is not a stuffy academic text.However, as much as it is based in fact, it is not completely factual.One reason is that the whole history has not been uncovered and the other is that the book is in fact a novel.

I recommend this book but, before you read it, realize that the style is not what you would expect from a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Agree with prior reviewers in being a little disappointed in the prose style
I too looked forward to reading a book ABOUT ancient Egypt written not only by an Egyptian but by a Nobel prize winner for Literature. I guess then I too must blame the translater for the stodgy dialogue and descriptions. Style also seemed old fashioned which may or may not have to do w/ it being written in the '40's.I have read non fiction reports of this era and this war because my interest was piqued by one of my very favorite Egyptian historical novels the series: The Lords of the Two Lands by Pauline Gedge which I do very much recommend to anyone for comparison with this book.
Historically, no one can say if Ahmose had an affair with the king's daughter just as there are some fictional elements in Gedge's book.
Historians are also not sure if Ahmose was Sequenenra's son or grandson, apparently the records are just not clear.Gedge's books ( a trilogy) DO get into the roles of the Tao women (family name of the Theban kings) Aahotep, widow of Sequenenra apparently was for a time regent and was given the Golden Flies by King Ahmose, a seldom given award for MILITARY bravery. They were buried with her and are now in a museum. The mother of Sequenenra, Tetisheri, was also apparently involved in militarystategy as well as in holding the family estates while the men were at war, for her as well as Aahotep King Ahmose later erectedstalae stating their valuable contributions.
These facts, as well as photgraphs of Sequenenra's mummy with its 5 or more wounds to the face and head, any one of which would have been fatal, can be seen in several Egyptian history books, including Nicholas Reeves' book about Akhenaten when Reeves is laying the historical framework for the Akhenaten period.
One problem I had w/ the Mahfouz' book was his emphasis on the evil Hyksos being white skinned. Actually they were Asiatics, the point of course, was he was writing during WWII and this prejudicial and biased writing was probably aimed at British and other European colonists in many non European nations at that time.Nevertheless, just asother biased racial statements made 50-60 years ago are not "forgiveable" now just because "they came from that time period" these should not be either. He over and over again emphasizes the evil of the white skinned people and the purity of the brown skinned.
Ms Gedge manages to tell the same story without mentioning the minutae of skin color differences which were, as far as we know of THAT era, unimportant to them.
Other than that problem, which I do understand due to the history of his country and its' situation at the time, I enjoyed reading the book from his point of view, and wish I could read it in the original to find out if the prose would be better than it seems to be.

Monotone depiction of the war to reclaim ancient Egypt
The Hyksos people, from the Asian continent, were the first foreign rulers of Egyptian land. The story of the book begins at the time when the Hyksos, lead by their King Apophis, were occupying the northern part of Egypt and when Pharaoh Seqenenra was in rule of the southern part. The capital of Apophis was Memphis while that of Seqenenra Thebes.

Seqenenra is lured into war and gets murdered. The book chronicles the war from that point on till Seqenenra's grandson and Pharaoh Ahmose finally defeats Apophis, reclaims the entirety of Egyptian territory, and starts the New Kingdom. All wars were fought along the Nile, from the southern Nubian city Napata to the final stand off at the northern city of Avaris located in the Nile delta.

I picked up the book for two reasons. I wanted to get acquainted with ancient Egypt history before I embarked on a trip there. I also wanted to read Mafouz, the only Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel prize in literature to this date. The book turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. For one the story was told monotonically, as a sequence of descriptions of the cities and battles thereat on Ahmose's campaign to Avaris. The story of Ahmose's love interest with Apophis' daughter provided perhaps the only refreshing interludes. However even this affair wasn't delivered as convincingly as it could have been. Intentionally or not, the story telling sounded old.

I had learned from somewhere that Mafouz' prose is famous for its fluidity. If such is the case the translator of this particular book may be at fault. I plan to read Mafouz' Cairo Trilogy to find out.

HOW THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS GOT RID OF THE HYKSOS

I read this because I wanted to see what kind of writing"the winner of the Nobel prize in literature" was doing with ancient Egypt.You must read the introduction probably before andafter reading Thebes at War.If you've wondered how the Hyksos were expelled from Egypt, this brings that history to life.The problem with it is that its very stilted in language and I'm not sure if that'show Mahfouz thoughtthey spoke during this time or it simply reflects the very static art and artifactsfrom the period.It's an exciting tale once one forgets the ponderous dialogue and thehokeylove storybetweenAhmose and the daughter of the Hyksos King.I also was taken back by the descriptions of color of the different peoples-- the white skinned, hook-nosed Hyksos - i.e. the middle eastern Mediterranean people who had crushed Egypt 200 years before.The honey brown Egyptians (Good guys) and the black pygmies.This is probably a reflection of the time Mahfouz wrote this in 1944 when the British really ruled Egypt.If you can forgive the previous, its an imaginative tale of how the Egyptians got rid of the Hyksos.
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Product Description
Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt's Nobel laureate for literature, was born in an old quarter of Cairo in 1911. His study of philosophy at what is now Cairo University greatly influenced his works, as did his wide readings, and his work in the government and in the Cinema Organization. Life's Wisdom is a unique collection of quotations selected from this great author s works, offering philosophical insights on themes such as childhood, youth, love, marriage, war, freedom, death, the supernatural, the afterlife, the soul, immortality, and many other subjects that take us through life s journey. Naguib Mahfouz's works abound with words of wisdom. As Nadine Gordimer states in her foreword to one of his earlier books: "The essence of a writer's being is in the work, not the personality, though the world values things otherwise, and would rather see what the writer looks like on television than read where he or she really is to be found: in the writings." In keeping with Gordimer's comment, Mahfouz's true nature can be found in his writing. The quotations included here offer a broad, yet profound, insight into the writer s philosophy gained through a life's journey of experience and writing. ... Read more

Product Description
Naguib Mahfouz, the first and only writer of Arabic to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, wrote prolifically from the 1930s until shortly before his death in 2006, in a variety of genres: novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, a regular weekly newspaper column, and in later life his intensely brief and evocative Dreams. His Cairo Trilogy achieved the status of a world classic, and the Swedish Academy of Letters in awarding him the 1988 Nobel Prize for literature noted that Mahfouz “through works rich in nuance—now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous—has formed an Arabic narrative art that applies to all mankind.”

Here Denys Johnson-Davies, described by Edward Said as “the leading Arabic–English translator of our time,” and the first to translate Naguib Mahfouz into English, makes an essential selection of short stories and extracts from novels and other writings, to present a cross-section through time of the very best of the work of Egypt’s Nobel literature laureate.
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Product Description
Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz draws on his homeland’s rich engagement with the afterlife–and his own near-death experience at the hands of a would-be assassin–in these newly translated, brilliantly mysterious stories of the supernatural.

Among those who haunt these tales are the ghosts of Akhenaten, Woodrow Wilson, and Gamal Abd al-Nasser, who endure a strange system of earthly probation in the hope of gaining entry to the fabled Seventh Heaven; a teenager drawn into the secret, enchanted life he finds within his neighborhood’s forbidden wood; an honest perfume seller accosted on a night out by angry skeletons; and Satan himself, who confesses that there is still, despite the flood of evil in our times, an honorable man in the land. As ingenious at capturing the surreal as he is at documenting the very real social landscape of modern Cairo, Mahfouz guides these restless spirits as they migrate from the shadowy realms of other worlds to the haunted precincts of our own.


From the Trade Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Wonderful but confusing to some level
The entire freshman class at a Richmond Governor's school was required to read this book. Don't get me wrong, it is a WONDERFUL book with all of its vignettes and how they all paint a picture of an alley being like a family. It is just so confusing in some points. Some stories are pointless and don't add to the overall story. You never find out the narrator's name. Sometimes the narrator is telling the stories as a child, or as an adult look back on childhood, and it jumps around these two views quite often. Other than the slight confusing, this book is a great quick read and can be interpreted in quite a few different ways. I reccommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading at all.

An excellent book
Somehow my previous review of this book has been dropped.This was my introduction to Mahfouz; I understand why he is a Nobel Prize winner.The books uses a number of short vignettes to describe the neighbor over the lifetime of the narrator.Through these vignettes one sees the changing world of the neighbor - from governed by a thug-king to something resembling faith in Egytian government passing through the overthrow of the British rule.The changing world is also reflected in schooling, in women working, in the partial overthrow of superstition, etc.Each vignette is so perfect and the total effect of them makes this a book you should not miss.

Fountian And Tumb
I thought that this book was a realy slow pase. I liked how they tied the beginning to the end and how everyone thought he was crazy. It is sad about the death that goes on durring the storie. The one thing that bugged meabout this book was that you never finf out the boys name who is the onetelling about the book. It is hard to write about someone when you don'tknow his name. oh well, it was an ok book, my class thought that it wasslow too.

Mahfouz paints a beautiful, mystical portrait....
When I was a freshman at the University of Richmond, Naguib Mahfouz'sFountain and Tomb was one of the books all first year English classes wererequired to read. I must confess, as a typical student, I had little desireto read the aforementioned text; however, from the moment I read the firstparagraph, I was hooked. Rarelyhave I ever discovered such pure joy inprose. Each word, each sentence created so detailed a picture of a worldwhich delighted me and, by the conclusion of the piece, I longed for more.Mahfouz has painted with words a beautiful, mystical portrait in theFountain and Tomb and I highly recomend this book to anyone who has eventhe slightest passing interest in Egypt. ... Read more

Product Description
Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz mines the riches of his homeland’s ancient past in Rhadopis of Nubia, an unforgettable love story set against the high politics of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty.

While the ravishing courtesan Rhadopis is bathing, a falcon lifts one of her golden sandals and drops it into the lap of the Pharaoh Merenra II. Upon hearing Rhadopis described as “beauty itself,” the young pharaoh decides to return Rhadopis’s sandal himself. When the two meet, they are immediately seized by a passion far stronger than their ability to resist. Thus begins a love affair that makes them the envy of Egyptian society. But blinded by their love and the extravagant attentions they lavish on each other, they ignore the growing resentment of the world around them in this extraordinary tale of star-crossed love. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A disaster called Beauty
The power struggle between the civil (political) and religious authorities is a favorite theme of Naguib Mahfouz (see also, Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth).
At that epoch in Egypt, half of the lands of the kingdom belong to the priesthood. But for reasons of prestige, the very ambitious and jealous Pharaoh wants to build new palaces and needs therefore new land and vast new resources. He finds nothing better than to annex the temple domains to the lands of the crown.
This annexation is a very dangerous bet, because the priests constitute a formidable social force. They reign over the hearts and the minds of the people via the temple sermons and the educational network.
The psychological struggle for the heart of the people reaches a new high when the Pharaoh falls in love with a demonic beauty, the courtesan Rhadopis. He squanders vast amounts of gold to construct a new palace for his favorite. But, the religious authorities begin to sap his prestige.

For Naguib Mahfouz, the Pharaoh is the symbol of Egypt and the Egyptians, lovers of female beauties and luxury and squanderers of big fortunes.
They pose the eternal question: Shouldn't we live by the gospel of hedonism, 'Carpe Diem'?The tomb is said to be the door of heaven. But, no one has ever emerged from that door to reassure our hearts. What did the powerful win by exercising their power? What did they get in return from the riches they tried to acquire during their whole life? Smoke.
On the other hand, pleasure is pleasure! Everything that isn't beauty is worth just nothing.

In this strong novel, where the innocence of art is used as the ultimate means to achieve dubious purposes, Naguib Mahfouz raises and answers crucial questions in the life of every human being.
A must read for all lovers of world literature.
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Product Description
Rama and the Dragon, a multi-layered novel about the depths of human experience and the struggle between polarities, on the surface presents a love story of unrequited passion between Rama -- the symbol of multiplicity and creativity -- and Mikhail -- the symbol of unity and constancy. Their story reflects the relationship not only between man and woman, Copt and Muslim, but also between Upper and Lower Egypt. Through a delicate grid of intertextual references and juxtaposed narratives, the dreams and hopes, fears and defeats of Rama and Mikhail move from the local to the global, corresponding to human dreams and anxieties everywhere.

In this novel, Edwar al-Kharrat has created a unique form of narrative discourse in which he presents Egyptian realities and actualities of the 1960s and 1970s, with flashbacks to as early as the 1940s, in an aesthetic form that highlights historical moments while blending philosophical, mythical, and psychological perspectives in a literary parallel to the cinematic technique of montage.

In their citation awarding al-Kharrat the Mahfouz Medal, the judges stated: ''Rama and the Dragon is considered a breakthrough in the literary history of modern Arabic fiction.'' ... Read more

Product Description
Highly acclaimed Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz has written more than 30 novels, including Palace Walk, and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. The Search is a lurid and compelling tale that is as well a harsh criticism of post-Revolution morality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Trite Beginning Leading to An Original Ending
Here again is Mahfouz sunk in the depth of this new phase of his, the phase that started with "The Theif and The Dogs" followed by "Autumn Grocer Quail," non of which I liked that much.

In this one, I think, Mahfouz mastered this new writing disciplin of his. Now he knows what he wants to do and what to say, and he pretty much did a good job.

This story, I feel, combines elements from this and the previous phases (The privious phase was the one ending with the Trilogy). It is a romance, and is a deep study of the psychology of Egyptians.

The story starts with a prostitute/pimp mother revealing to her son that his father was still alife and is a wealthy man. Then she dies. The boy starts "The Search" for his father, which is the title of the novel. The real Arabic title was "The Road." The story from this point on takes a different turn. You would think that the story is only conserned with the search for the father. I think what Mahfouz wants is the search for the identity.

I think this is a story of how a man can be both a villain and a magnanimous. How a man can both enjoy a platonic love and indulge in an animalistic sexual relationship in the same time.

Mahfouz does a great job describing the feelings of a suspicious man, and how this might lead him to a point from where he cannot return. How a man can hate the same person he used to love, or on whom his life depended.

The story is worth reading, and is one of the best I read. If you already like it, why don't you try "Midaq Alley" and "The Trilogy." For more reviews about Mahfouz's books, please strike the blue "a_mathematician" below the title of this review, and enjoy.

Battle between good and evil.
A man born in a luxury brothel is asked by his mother, a madam, to search for his father. During the search he meets two women : the unselfish Ilhaam and the provocative Kariema, who is married to a much older man. The man is torn between the two: Ilhaam, a reflection of his father - a promise and a dream difficult to become true- and Kariema, a reflection of his mother - sensual pleasure and criminal practices. Kariema asks him to kill her husband and to marry her. In the meantime the search for his father continues.
A thrilling story, sensually written.

The Search for Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz is probably one of the most controversial and prominent writers the Arab world has ever known. His novels give a vivid and intimate depiction of life in his native Egypt. Some have said that reading one of his books is just like sitting at a maqha(coffee house) in Alexandria. All this can be seen very clearly in one of his best novels ever "The Search". In it we are told the story of Saber el Reheimy, a man torn between a dark past and a hopeless future. His mother was a prostitute. Right before she dies she tells him that his father is still alive (ok...not the most original idea in the world, but nevertheless makes for an interesting story). He goes out to search for his father but instead finds something else, himself. The story is quite exhilarating; I was not able to put it down until the end (which by the way was highly unexpected). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A collector's item.
I would not normally review my own translation, but I have to correct the impression given in the review by A Customer: the novel is set on the edge of Cairo, not in India, and it reflects on the three Western monotheistic religions and not at all on those of India, China, etcetera.The first four heroes relive the lives of Adam, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad respectively, and the fifth hero represents modern science and technology.I give it only 4 stars, because the translation needed to be revised - and was, as Children of Gebelaawi.However, it is a collector's item as only 6,000 copies were published by Henemann Educational Books and 2,000 by Three Continents Press.

Children of Gebelawi
The Children of Gebelawi is a must read for anyone who dares to look at religion beyond traditional interpretations.Maohfauouz takes all of the major world religions and retells the stories of the prophets in a modernday context set in India.The retelling of the prophets allows one toexamine the actual stories of the religions in a way that encouragescritique and in some cases acceptance.It is a fabulous read - especiallyfor those who enjoy challenging and clarifying their own beliefs. ... Read more

Product Description
A psychological study of the first order with a subtly Freudian flavor, The Mirage is the autobiographical account of Kamil Ru'ba, a tortured soul who finds himself struggling unduly to cope with life's challenges. The internal torment and angst that dog him throughout his life and the tragic, ironic turns of events that overtake him as a young man are, to a great extent, the outworkings of his faulty upbringing. At the same time, they work together to drive home the novel's underlying theme: the illusory, undependable nature of the world in which we live and the call to seek, beyond the outward and the ephemeral, that which is inward and enduring. The narrative, full of pathos, draws the reader unwittingly into a vicarious experience of Kamilâs agonies and ecstasies. As such, it is a specimen of Mahfouz's prose at its finest. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"I [was] destined not to know anything about life's true wisdom.I'd never gone beyond the confines of my own soul."
In this unusual and often charming novel from 1948, newly translated and republished, Naguib Mahfouz writes his only Freudian, psychological study, an analysis of Kamil Ru'ba Laz, a young Egyptian so dominated by his mother that he is unable to make a single decision or form a single successful relationship with the outside world. When the novel opens, his mother has just died, and Kamil, in his late twenties, is devastated.Though he believes that "people who write are, generally speaking, people who aren't alive," he recognizes that he was not really alive before his mother's death.He hopes that writing will allow him "to remember her and to recover her life...[so that] I may be able to repair the thread of my life that's been broken."

The first person novel which results is Kamil's attempt to put his life into perspective and, perhaps, to find some hope for the future.We meet his father, a man from a good family but with no job and a penchant for alcohol, who frequently beats his wife.Kamil's mother leaves him, is persuaded to return, and eventually abandons him forever, taking their children with her.Kamil, born after the abandonment, never knows his father.When Radiya and Medhat, the two older children, are aged ten and nine, however, their father claims them, in accordance with Islamic law, leaving her with only Kamil, to whom she now devotes her whole life.

His mother nurtures what Kamil later recognizes as an "unwholesome relationship...a kind of affection that destroys."He is never out of his mother's sight and is encouraged to depend on her totally--sleeping in the same room and having no sense of personal privacy.He grows up isolated, terrified of the outside world, and excruciatingly shy, unable to speak to strangers.He is mocked by both teachers and students, and he grows up, "forlorn and friendless," a condition that continues into his twenties.

With this totally egocentric life, Kamil is certainly not a candidate for true love, but Mahfouz introduces Kamil's desire for a wife as the turning point of the book.His search for love, his selection of the woman of his dreams, the complications this potential relationship creates with his mother, the effects of his pathological fears on any long-term relationship, and his complete naivete about sex and what it means to be a husband all reflect the influence of his early childhood on his adult life.

Mahfouz has created in Kamil a main character whom it is difficult to like, and now, sixty years after this book was written, difficult to empathize with.Still, Mahfouz's use of a conversational style, his narrative charm, and his easy-going humor keep the reader engaged, hoping for Kamil's success even when tempted to give up on him as a lost cause. Firmly grounded in Kamil's psychological conundrum, Mahfouz stays true to his subject as he explores the effects of family on character, taking the extreme examples of Kamil and his mother to their limits to evaluate whether or not there is some kernel of individuality which can survive such influences, preserve one's essence, and allow for growth in new andcontrary directions. n Mary Whipple

Karnak Café
Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth A Novel
Morning and Evening Talk


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