Egyptian writers
Naguib Mahfouz: where to start
Naguib Mahfouz is the most celebrated Egyptian writer of all time, and the only writer in Arabic to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Here is who he was, which of his books to read first, and where to go next.
Who is Naguib Mahfouz?
Mahfouz was born in Cairo in 1911, in the old Gamaliya quarter, and died there in 2006. For most of his working life he was a civil servant, writing in the evenings, and he produced more than thirty novels and hundreds of short stories.
In 1988 he became the first, and so far the only, Arabic-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. His novels follow Egypt through the twentieth century, from the 1919 revolution to the years after Nasser, almost always through the streets and families of Cairo.
His novel Children of the Alley, an allegory that retells the stories of the prophets in a Cairo neighborhood, was serialized in 1959 and kept out of print in Egypt for decades. In 1994 he survived a knife attack outside his home by an extremist, which left him with lasting nerve damage in his writing hand.
Where to start
The Cairo Trilogy · 1956 to 1957
Palace Walk
The first volume of his masterpiece: a Cairo merchant, his family and his secrets, set against the 1919 revolution. Followed by Palace of Desire and Sugar Street.
1947
Midaq Alley
Life in one narrow Cairo alley during the Second World War. Short, vivid and the easiest way in.
1961
The Thief and the Dogs
A thief walks out of prison determined to take revenge on the people who betrayed him. Mahfouz at his tightest, and close to a crime novel.
1967
Miramar
A boarding house in Alexandria and the lodgers who tell the same events in four different ways.
Why read Naguib Mahfouz today
No one has drawn Cairo more completely. Reading Mahfouz is the best introduction there is to how Egyptians lived, argued, loved and fought through a century of revolution and change.
His books are also simply gripping: family secrets, betrayals, crimes and reckonings. The Thief and the Dogs reads like a thriller, and the Cairo Trilogy has the pull of a great family saga.
Another Egyptian voice
Mahfouz’s Cairo is a city of alleys, cafés and family secrets. A.M. Khalifa’s Cairo is part of a modern espionage story: Terminal Rage begins with a hostage standoff in a Manhattan office tower and leads to Cairo and an Egyptian prison.
A.M. Khalifa grew up in a diplomatic corps family across more than fifteen countries and is the only Egyptian writing commercial espionage fiction in English. His debut, Terminal Rage, has sold more than 500,000 copies and received a starred review from Booklist.
More Egyptian writers
Alaa Al Aswany · Ahdaf Soueif · Nawal El Saadawi · Omar El Akkad · Ahmed Mourad · Ahmed Khaled Towfik · Tawfiq al-Hakim · Taha Hussein · Radwa Ashour · Yusuf Idris · Latifa al-Zayyat · Bahaa Taher · Youssef Ziedan · Sonallah Ibrahim · Ibrahim Abdel Meguid · Ezzedine Choukri Fishere · Khaled Al Khamissi · Mansoura Ez-Eldin · Waguih Ghali · Yasmine El Rashidi · Noor Naga · Omar Robert Hamilton · Nabil Farouk · A.M. Khalifa
Questions
Which Naguib Mahfouz book should I read first?
Midaq Alley is the easiest way in. If you want his masterpiece, start the Cairo Trilogy with Palace Walk. If you like crime fiction, try The Thief and the Dogs.
Did Naguib Mahfouz win the Nobel Prize?
Yes, in 1988. He is still the only writer in Arabic to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Did Mahfouz write in English?
No. He wrote in Arabic, and his books are widely available in English translation.
Who are Egyptian writers like Naguib Mahfouz?
Alaa Al Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building is often compared to Mahfouz for its portrait of Cairo. Taha Hussein and Tawfiq al-Hakim were his great predecessors. For a contemporary Egyptian writing thrillers in English, try A.M. Khalifa.