Product Description
Against the background of the high politics of Sixth Dynasty Egypt, a powerful love grows between Rhadopis, a courtesan whose ravishing beauty is unmatched in time or place, and youthful, headstrong Pharaoh Merenra, worshiped by his people as a divine presence on earth.

Rhadopis comes of poor peasant stock, but her star rises until she become the most celebrated woman in the kingdom, entertaining her countless lovers, who include the most powerful men in the realm, with her dancing, singing, and stimulating intellectual conversation in her white palace on an island in the Nile. Despite the attention and the endless stream of suitors, however, Rhadopis's heart remains cold and loveless -- until events conspire in the strangest of ways to bring her to the attention of Pharaoh himself. From there the two of them embark on a journey of intense passion that is totally absorbing and ultimately tragic. As their obsession for one another burns wildly, they become caught up in the violent turbulence of the politics of the day -- Merenra through his desire to sequester the properties of the priesthood and Rhadopis by her efforts to control the march of destiny and avoid their untimely but inevitable fate. But for Rhadopis, who has played with men's minds and danced on the scattered shards of their broken hearts, and Pharaoh, who has sought to flaunt ancient tradition for his own ends, can the power of love ultimately offer protection? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Plain Topic Made a Masterpiece!
A book about rise and fall of a civil servant. Sounds boring, huh? But Mahfouz being one of my favorite writers, I trusted him. And once again, he didn't disappoint!

I read this book on an exotic Nile Cruise and it soon became more interesting than observing the shores of Nile! (can't believe I am saying this!)

It is so well written. Keeps your attention to the very end.
Not quite The Cairo Trilogy (my favorite), but I still give it five stars. Not to be missed!

awesome
this is the third novel of Mahfuz's i've read, and each one has been tremendous.I read "the search" years ago, and "the beggar" recently.They were both, in their own way, utterly absorbing. Presently i've just finished "respected, sir," and i admit i'm running out of accolades for this author. Certain rare writers seem to have a genius for making everything they write interesting.Mahfuz is such a writer.You enter his fictional worlds, both their rich, sense-laden outer landscapes, and the complex inner worlds of his tormented characters, and you're just hooked.No fireworks.More like quicksand.You're just sucked pleasantly, as if hypnotically (and inescapably) in, and you're not so pleased when his books end.I can't recommend this author highly enough.I feel fortunate that I've only just tapped his prodigious body of work.

the wrong conjugation
This book tells the story of a careerist who becomes CEO ... on his deathbed.
It is a tale of a relentless but futile effort of a man who wants to become somebody, but who uses, as Nietzsche said, the wrong conjugation: he doesn't live, but is lived.

Beautifully told.
Highly recommended.

One of my favourite authors
His books are always interesting. This one is no exception. A short book but very interesting and insightful. Definitely worth reading. ... Read more

Product Description
On a school playground in the stylish Cairo suburb of Abbasiya, five young boys become friends for life, making a nearby café, Qushtumur, their favorite gathering spot forever. One is the narrator, who, looking back in his old age on their seven decades together, makes the other four the heroes of his tale, a Proustian (and classically Mahfouzian) quest in search of lost time and the memory of a much-changed place.

In a seamless stream of personal triumphs and tragedies, their lives play out against the backdrop of two world wars, the 1952 Free Officers coup, the defeat of 1967 and the redemption of 1973, the assassination of a president, and the simmering uncertainties of the transitional 1980s. But as their nation grows and their neighborhood turns from the green, villa-studded paradise of their youth to a dense urban desert of looming towers, they still find refuge in the one enduring landmark in their ever-fading world: the humble coffeehouse called Qushtumur. ... Read more

Product Description
Midaq Alley is a novel about a street full of colorful Egyptians coping with life towards the end of World War II. They include a dissolute cafe owner, his fiery wife, and their materialistic prodigal son; a young man who, for the love of a beautiful girl, goes off to make his fortune while she falls first for a rich, elderly sexaholic and later for a pimp who turns her into a prostitute; a kindhearted mystic; two ghouls; and assorted lesser characters. Gossip keeps Midaq Alley alive.

This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion. ... Read more

Product Description
From the Foreword by Nadine Gordimer: "These pieces are meditations which echo that which was, has been, and is the writer Mahfouz. They are--in the words of the title of one of the prose pieces--'The Dialogue of the Late Afternoon' of his life. I don't believe any autobiography, with its inevitable implication of self-presentation, could have matched what we have here."

With more than 500,000 copies of his books in print, Naguib Mahfouz has established a following of readers for whom Echoes of an Autobiography provides a unique opportunity to catch an intimate glimpse into the life and mind of this magnificent storyteller.Here, in his first work of nonfiction ever to be published in the United States, Mahfouz considers the myriad perplexities of existence, including preoccupations with old age, death, and life's transitory nature.A surprising and delightful departure from his bestselling and much-loved fiction, this unusual and thoughtful book is breathtaking evidence of the fact that Naguib Mahfouz is not only a "storyteller of the first order" (Vanity Fair), but also a profoundthinker of the first order. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Words That Sing
If you want a break from other types of books, this book is a lovely change of pace.

It consists of very short prose pieces, perfect to pick up for a few minutes or to read before bed. If words could sing, this would be quite a fascinating composition--light, happy notes; deep, melancholy tones; charming melodies.

For me, I immediately wanted to share certain passages with others. I will keep this book on my shelf to refer back to from time to time, when I want to remember how beautifully words can convey images.

I also found myself amazed that a translator (Denys Johnson-Davies) could do such a fine job. Often translated works have an awkwardness, but these pieces each flow and stand on their own as individual works.

We read this book for our book club and it was wonderful because we could each choose several pieces and read them aloud and enjoy them together.

Autobiography of the imagination
Despite its title, this is definitely not an autobiography of Mahfouz. Four things prove this: the narrator has three sons (Mahfouz had two daughters); he is sent to prison (Mahfouz never was); he works for a period outside Cairo (Mahfouz never did); he joins a Sufi order (Mahfouz assured me most emphatically that he never did). This was the last book that Mahfouz wrote. In fact he did not write it; it was put together out of pieces that he had dictated, and it is not clear how far it represents the complete work that he had in mind. I believe it should be regarded as a work of fiction, though it may be a fantasy of a life he would like to have lived. It is nevertheless a moving work, and it helps to enlarge our understanding of the author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The best book ever
Children of Gebelaawi is the best book I have ever read. Unfortunately, it was banned in Egypt after the first chapter was published in a newspaper. It was then published in Beirut, Lebanon in the sixties. I know that it took Mahfouz many years to complete this great book. Therefore, after it was banned, he tried to rewrite the same idea in other flavors that could be accepted by the Egyptian government but no other novel of his can be compared to this one.

One of the greatest works of fiction in any language
Nobel laureate Nafuib Mahfouz, is an artist who put his life at risk by publishing this great work.Despite his position as the greatest living Arabic author, or perhaps because of it, fundamentalists have made several attempts on his life, almost succeeding in 1994.

Children of Gebelaawi, also published as Children of the Alley, tells biblical and Islamic history as a parable painting the Divine as the overlord and humanity as the generations who live in the alley just beyond the walls. The stories of characters representing Adam, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad are each told in turn, offering a fascinating portrait of each and their influence on humanity.The writing is lyrical and poetic and the story is extremely moving.

Not since, Nikos Kazantzakis's Last Temptation has anyone offered such a beautiful and thought provoking image of religion.In short, a must read.

Great Books
Children of Gebelaawi is one of the greatest books of all time. Naguib Mahfouz is a writer with a profound understanding of the human condition. This book is a history of the world, an analogy of the lives of great religious figures from Moses on up, a moral history of immense proportions describing the strengths and weaknesses and foibles of humankind. Recent events in the Middle East render his balanced voice even more poignant. It is so sad, so ironic that he was attacked by fundamentalists a few years ago.

Wow! A book that makes you think!
This book is wonderful, it draws you into a racing plot and almost forces you to become emotinally attached to the characters. It is, on the surface, a history of an Alley in Cairo and its inhabitants as they relate to heroicfigures that cropped up in their history. However, just under the surfaceit is clearly a treatise on progressive revelation, with each herorepresenting a Manifestation of God. As the plot unwinds the lives of theProphets become very real to the reader, and the truth that Their Missionsare best demonstrated by the lives they lead is perfectly and succinctlyput across. Reference is made to the Manifestations recognised by Islam,Adam, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and "another," corresponding toAdham, Gebel, Rifaa, Qaasim and Arafa in the book. The individual qualitiesof the Prophets are very clearly put across, as is their underlyingsimilarity, and the book wisely leaves the story unconcluded but with aglimmer of hope that thecause of the Manifestation of Arafa stillcontinues. Although I have some idea as to the true identity of Arafa, Ifeel it would be unwise to put my views across here because of thecontroversy they may cause.However, I am willing to give my views onrequest, and I must stress that these are my views only, and not those ofthe author or the Baha'i Community, of which I am a member. I can onlyexpress my gratitude to the author by demonstrating the depth to which hehas touched the purpose of my existence:- "Oppression must end asnight yields to day. We shall se in our Alley the death of tyranny and thedawn of miracles" - Children of Gebelaawi. "These fruitlessstrifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the Most Great Peace shallcome." - Baha'i Faith ... Read more

Product Description
In this extraordinary drama-in-dialogue, Naguib Mahfouz reveals his love for all of Egypt's extensive history and his deep knowledge of it. In Before the Throne, he summons nearly sixty of Egypt's rulers to the afterlife Court of Osiris, from a king who unified Egypt for the first time, around 3000 BC, to a president assassinated by religious extremists in 1981.

He includes names as familiar as the pharaoh Ramesses II and as obscure as the medieval vizier Qaraqush. Defending their behavior before the divine tribunal, those who acted for the nation's good are honored with immortality, but those who failed to protect it leave the gilded hall of eternal justice with a very different verdict.

Full of Mahfouz's unique insight into his country's timeless qualities, this controversial work skillfully traces five thousand years of Egypt's past as it flows into the present, through the mind of its most acclaimed author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

`How easy is the telling and how hard was the doing!'
In this book, which Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) regarded as history rather than fiction, he presents a tableau of Egyptian history.This book has recently been published in English, it was first published in Arabic in 1983.

Almost sixty Egyptian rulers are summoned for judgement by the afterlife court of Osiris. Each person is required to speak of their time in power and their impact or influence on Egypt.Osiris then judges, for those from the Egypt of the pharaohs, whether they will join the Immortals, go to the Realm of Purgatory or to Hell.The judgment belongs to Osiris, but he is flanked by Isis and Horus and assisted by Thoth, Scribe of the Gods.Once the trials move beyond the pharaohs, the judgements by Osiris are a type of historical appraisal to be considered by the appropriate religious court.

Almost 5000 years of history are covered: from Menes to Muhammad Anwar Sadat.The setting - a Court of Justice making judgements about the past - and the imagined dialogue provided glimpses of periods and events.The book is published as a novel yet reads like history rather than fiction.I enjoyed the concept and its potential to illuminate history but found that there are far too many gaps in my own knowledge of Egyptian history to make complete sense of what is presented.What does come across clearly was Naguib Mahfouz's immersion in the history of Egypt.

Raymond Stock, the translator of this book, is writing a biography of Naguiz Mahfouz. His afterword provides contextual and biographic information which I found invaluable in my reading.

`Thus has the life of Egypt passed before you in all its joys and sorrows.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

"May the Divinity be implored to invest the folk of Egypt with the wisdom...to remain a lighthouse of right guidance and beauty"
Twenty-five years after Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz wrote this novel, it has been released in English by the University of Cairo Press.An unusual book, it is more a catalog of all the rulers of Egypt since the First Kingdom than a novel in the traditional sense.Each ruler has been summoned to appear for his own trial at the celestial Hall of Justice, where Osiris reposes on his golden throne, with Isis and Horus flanking him.Each ruler must argue his own case, after which the gods and the other Immortals deliberate and assign him to the place where he will spend his afterlife--Paradise, the Inferno, or the Place of Insignificance, between the two, neither Heaven nor Hell.

The first trial is for King Menes, the mightiest monarch of the First Dynasty, who subdued Libya and joined Upper and Lower Egypt. As he presents his case, his judges counter his positive presentation with other facts he has ignored.One hundred thousand Libyans died, and two hundred thousand Egyptians from the North and South Kingdoms died.As the various kings present their cases, it is Isis who is usually the peacemaker, offering reasons to justify the kings' actions enough to enable them to sit with the Immortals.

In short sections averaging between two and five pages, the rulers are presented chronologically from the earliest of Egyptian history through the trial of Anwar Sadat.As the trials move forward, the reader perceives subtle changes--from the early kings, who are are fierce warriors and builders, to later kings who begin to show more sympathetic treatment of their subjects.At the halfway point in the novel, Thoth announces that the Egypt of the gods, pyramids, temples has come to an end, and Egypt is ruled henceforth by non-Egyptians.Persian kings seize the throne.The Romans arrive, bringing Christianity; sectarian battles erupt between the Egyptian church and that of Byzantium; and Islam sweeps the country.

Eventually, the chronology reaches the twentieth century, with Egypt's colonial rule by the British, and finally, the administrations of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat.Nasser comes under particularly hostile argument during his trial by the Immortals because he was"heedless of liberty and human rights." At Sadat's trial, one former ruler among the Immortals accuses him:"You wanted democratic rule in which the leaders have dictatorial authority."

More a catalog than a novel, Before the Throne provides fascinating research, but there are no dates included, and most of the rulers will be unfamiliar to western readers.Mahfouz's very short summaries of these rulers make the rulers difficult to distinguish from each other, and the threads uniting the earliest Kingdoms of Egyptian history--the time of the pyramids--with modern times are not strong enough to sustain a sense of thematic development.Ultimately, Mahfouz tells his audience the lessons he wants them to glean from the novel. Akhenaten, for example, advises the Egyptians "to hold to the worship of the One God."Menes admonishes them to "Be zealous for the unity of the land and the people."Khufu declares that "Egypt must believe in labor."In conclusion, Anwat Sadat adds that the goal should be "civilization and peace."Mary Whipple

The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library)
Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth A Novel
The Day the Leader Was Killed
Karnak Café
The Mirage: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Novels)

... Read more