He published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays over a 70-year career. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. he was to develop a dedication to literature that would later give him international prominence as his country's leading author." (p v)Īccording to Wikipedia, "Naguib Mahfouz" "was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. There, in 1911 in the Gamaliya section of the old city, Naguib Mahfouz was born. Cairo, the cosmopolitan capital of the most populous country of the area, has throughout the period been its cultural and literary center. The Introduction by the translator, Trevor Le Gassick, gives some context: "The novel and short story, not truly traditional forms of Arabic literary expression, have developed great popularity over the past century" "in most countries of the Middle East. As such, I certainly can't make any generalizations of any value (are generalizations EVER of any value?!) but I can say that both novels take place partially during so-called WW-II, have women characters who become prostitutes, & a character or 2 who're pro-Hitler - while Britain uses Egypt as a military base. This is only the 2nd Egyptian novel that I've read, the 1st being Fathy Ghanem's The Man Who Lost His Shadow (see my review of that here: ). By tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - January 11, 2013
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