Cairo Modern

A major Early novel by the Egyptian Nobel laureate, published for the first time in English

The New York Times - Dinitia Smith

Despite its flaws the novel is a singular look at a historical moment in the lives of Egyptians raised in traditional households whose existences were rocked by modernity. If you want to understand the hunger, the corruption, the bitterness that led to Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1952 coup against Farouk, the rise of fundamentalism and the intense Arab nationalism that accompanied it, you will find it played out here in this book.

NAGUIB MAHFOUZ was born in 1911 in the crowded Cairo district of Gamaliya. He studied philosophy at Cairo University, then worked in various government ministries until his retirement in 1971. His first three published novels were Khufu's Wisdom (1939), Rhadopis of Nubia (1943), and Thebes at War (1944), all of which are set in ancient Egypt. These political and philosophical critiques disguised as historical romances show the unmistakable signs of a burgeoning literary genius. He went on to write more than 35 other novel-length works, plus hundreds of short stories and numerous cinema plots and scenarios, many of which have been made into successful films. Naguib Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1988. In 2006, he died at the age of 95.

William Maynard Hutchins teaches at Appalachian State University, is the principal translator of Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy (AUC Press, 1989-1992), and has most recently translated Ibrahim al-Koni's Anubis (AUC Press, 2005).