Pagine1911–2006 · Cairo, Egypt · also known as Mahfouz, Najib Mahfuz
Naguib Mahfouz, a civil servant who wrote every evening, made the Arabic novel modern. His Cairo Trilogy — Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street (1956–57) — follows three generations of a Cairo family from the 1919 revolution to World War II. In 1988 he became the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He survived a stabbing by an extremist in 1994 and kept writing.
Begin with Palace Walk.
Part of our African Literature reading list — print it, email it to yourself or share it.
Olaudah Equiano · Sol Plaatje · Chinua Achebe · Wole Soyinka · Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o · Mariama Bâ · Nadine Gordimer · J. M. Coetzee · Bessie Head · Tsitsi Dangarembga · Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Naguib Mahfouz, a civil servant who wrote every evening, made the Arabic novel modern. His Cairo Trilogy — Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street (1956–57) — follows three generations of a Cairo family from the 1919 revolution to World War II.
The Cairo Trilogy is usually considered Naguib Mahfouz’s best-known work, followed by Palace Walk, Midaq Alley, Children of the Alley.
Most readers start with Palace Walk.
Both refer to the same writer. Other spellings and names include Mahfouz, Najib Mahfuz.
Naguib Mahfouz’s books are still under copyright, so they are not free to download, but many can be borrowed free from your public library or Open Library — we link to them below.