Ṣabrī Ḥāfiẓ

Najīb Mahfūz

Palace of Desire ; Sugar Street

Palace Walk

Naguib Mahfouz

Volume I of the masterful Cairo Trilogy. A national best-seller in both hardcover and paperback, it introduces the engrossing saga of a Muslim family in Cairo during Egypt's occupation by British forces in the early 1900s.

The Cairo Trilogy, Volume 1

Vivian

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1988 was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind."

I enjoyed Palace Walk more than I thought I would. We get to witness the daily life of an ultra-conservative Egyptian family during the time of WWI, from the tyrannical and hypocritical father to the pious and submissive mother, from the two daughters whose lives are bound to be shaped by their future marriages, and three sons destined for different life paths. Mahfouz's writing reads like a very fine hand-scroll painting (e.g. 清明上河图), as you slowly unroll the painting, vivid, detailed, and successive scenes reveal the lifestyles and activities of people from various walks of life, and offer a glimpse into the mentality and culture of Egyptian society in that era. Intriguing and fascinating. Will continue with the next two books in the trilogy.

Palace Walk Palace of Desire ; Sugar Street

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