A carefully curated selection of the most important works of Egypt's Nobel literature laureate in a single volume

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," 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.

A carefully curated selection of the most important works of Egypt's Nobel literature laureate in a single volume

About the Author

Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) was born in the crowded Cairo district of Gamaliya. He wrote nearly 40 novel-length works, plus hundreds of short stories and numerous screenplays. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988.

Denys Johnson-Davies (1922-2017) produced more than thirty volumes of translation of modern Arabic literature, including The Essential Tawfiq al-Hakim (AUC Press, 2008) and The Essential Yusuf Idris (AUC Press, 2009). He received the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in 2007 for Personality of the Year in the Field of Culture.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR NAGUIB MAHFOUZ, WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

"The Arab world's foremost novelist"-The New York Times

"Mahfouz's work is freshly nuanced and hauntingly lyrical."-The Los Angeles Times

"A towering literary figure"-The Economist

"Egypt's greatest living writer and one of the world's most humane literary figures"-Laila Lalami, The Nation

"Timeless."-New Statesman

"A master of both detailed realism and fabulous storytelling"-The Guardian

"Mahfouz is a storyteller of the first order in any idiom." -Vanity Fair

"An affectionate evocation of lost youth and life's passage by a seasoned storyteller."-Kirkus Reviews

Book Information
ISBN 9789774163876
Author Naguib Mahfouz
Format Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint The American University in Cairo Press
Publisher The American University in Cairo Press
Weight(grams) 789g