A time for gifts

By Naguib Mahfouz

---

A few days ago I turned 93 and friends came over to celebrate. My wife had just attended the AUC launch of Dreams, the English translation of my Ahlam Fatrit Al- Naqaha (Dreams of Convalescence) which is currently being serialised by the magazine Nisf Al-Duniya but which is not yet available in book form in Arabic. Last year a translation of the same work appeared in France and I am told that it proved to be quite popular.

Dreams is the 29th of my books to be translated and published by AUC. I was leafing through the copy my wife gave me when two of my dearest friends arrived, veteran journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal and the publisher Mohamed Ibrahim El- Muallem. I have known both for decades and it is reassuring to see faces I associate with younger times, with a past that may disappear from sight but that will forever linger in the memory. Their visit was the best gift I received on that day. Books belong on shelves, to quiet evenings and to coming generations. But friendship is something you can savour at all times.

Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.