Cruelty of memory
To have taken history not only seriously but also literally is the central achievement of Mahfouz's work, argues Edward Said

No more chit chat on the Nile
No one provides a better example of the vexed relationship of the state vis-à-vis cultural production, writes Samia Mehrez

Dramatic ventures
Eight forays onto the stage: Nehad Selaiha takes stock

Strange omissions
Mustafa Darwish examines the writer's long affair with the cinema

Mahfouz's progeny: The Generation of the Sixties
The Generation of the Sixties is an ambiguous term, referring to a group of very different writers who began their careers in the late 1950s.. --read on--

Revealing conflicts
Interviews by Youssef Rakha

The unforgiving patriarch, the belly dancer; the forced smile, the smile sincere; kebab, whisky, and, above all, perhaps, a city so intent on its transformation as to have ended up beyond recognition: Naguib Mahfouz's fictional world, the Egypt and the Cairo of his novels accommodates them all, and much, much more.

Below, extracts from three novels, and the complete text of the short story Half a Day

Palace Walk
Adrift on the Nile
Miramar
Half a day

Naguib Mahfouz:
A life in writing
By Amina Elbendary

Complete works

Gaber Asfour
Ibrahim Aslan
Mohamed Berrada
Mohamed El-Bosati
Mustafa Darwish
Soliman Fayyad
Sonallah Ibrahim
Samia Mehrez
Edward Said
Nehad Selaiha
Bahaa Taher

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Mahfouz

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