2010/12; 2010/13

Naguib Mahfouz: The Thief and the Dogs (113p.)

Naguib Mahfouz: Miramar (160p.)

Mahfouz is the only Arabic writer to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1988), for a 70 year-long career, having produced over 50 novels, more than 350 short stories, and a multitude of scripts and plays.

I had wanted to read Mahfouz for a long time, and so I didn’t hesitate when running into this great Mahfouz sampler (in Durango, CO), containing three of his novels, and spanning two decades of his brilliant writing life: Midaq Alley (1947 – which I read a while ago), The Thief and the Dogs (1961), and Miramar (1967).

Existentialism and the Mediterranean: Bowles and Morocco, Camus and Algeria, Mahfouz and Egypt. Both The Thief and the Dogs and Miramar are about love, betrayal, and death. Classic.