28 March - 3 April 2002
Issue No.579
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 March - 3 April 2002 Issue No.579 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
The loss of a friend
I am sad whenever I think of Tharwat Abaza. I will never recover from the shock of his death.
He was three things to me: a dear friend, a great man of letters and a noble knight. In the literary articles he wrote for culture magazines of the 1940s, I could detect the talent and exacting standards of a remarkable writer. My friend Fouad Noweira, now deceased, then told me this man was a law student. At the time, he had written a piece on one of my novels, which betrayed eloquence of style and a deep understanding of the art of novel-writing.
I was pleased when I heard he would be visiting me at the Orabi Café. The encounter was to mark the start of a 60- year friendship. After I retired, for a time we spoke on the phone for half an hour every day if we could not meet, to exchange views about writing. In the summer, we met every morning around Tewfik El- Hakim's table.
Then my illness prevented me from using the phone and his illness prevented him from going out much. I sometimes sent telegraphs to see how he was. When I received news of his death, I felt I had lost a precious part of my life.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
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