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Midaq Alley
Naguib Mahfouz
Novel, 1947. Translated from Arabic
Life in a cramped Cairo alley during the Second World War, showing class, ambition and tradition in working-class Gamaliya.
Books set in Egypt
Five books by writers from Egypt, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with Midaq Alley and The Yacoubian Building.
About the literature of Egypt
Egypt's best-known writer is Naguib Mahfouz, who in 1988 became the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His Cairo Trilogy, beginning with Palace Walk, follows one family through the changing city between the two world wars, and Midaq Alley is a warm, sharp-eyed portrait of a single Cairo street. Most Egyptian writing is in formal Arabic, with Cairo's everyday speech in dialogue and popular verse, while oral epics such as the Sirat Bani Hilal are performed by poets.
Alaa Al Aswany's The Yacoubian Building follows the residents of a real downtown Cairo apartment block, from rooftop shacks to grand flats. Nawal El Saadawi, a doctor as well as a writer, wrote bluntly about women's lives, most famously in Woman at Point Zero. Some Egyptians write in English: Ahdaf Soueif's Booker-shortlisted The Map of Love links an Englishwoman in 1900s Egypt with her descendant a century later.
By writers from Egypt
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The Yacoubian Building
Alaa Al Aswany
Novel, 2002. Translated from Arabic
Residents of a downtown Cairo apartment block reveal corruption, inequality, Islamism and social change in modern Egypt.
The Map of Love
Ahdaf Soueif
Novel, 1999
Interwoven stories of an Englishwoman in early 1900s Egypt and her descendant, exploring colonialism, nationalism and Cairo.
Zayni Barakat
Gamal al-Ghitani
Novel, 1974. Translated from Arabic by Farouk Abdel Wahab
Mamluk-era Cairo under the shadow of Ottoman conquest, with surveillance and power echoing modern Egyptian politics.
Women at Point Zero
Nawal El Saadawi
Novel, 1975. Translated from Arabic
A woman's story of poverty, gender violence and oppression in Egypt, rooted in village and Cairo life.
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