The Harafish

<p>Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988,&nbsp;&nbsp;Naguib Mahfouz is perhaps the best-known living&nbsp;&nbsp;Arab writer. His books have had great success in&nbsp;&nbsp;this country, particularly <i>The Cairo&nbsp;&nbsp;Trilogy</i>. Fans of the famed trilogy will be&nbsp;&nbsp;delighted with <i>The Harafish</i>, an epic&nbsp;&nbsp;novel that chronicles the dramatic history of the&nbsp;&nbsp;al-Nagi family — a family that&nbsp;&nbsp;moves, over many generations, from the height of power&nbsp;&nbsp;and glory to the depths of decadence and decay.&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>The Harafish</i> begins with the tale&nbsp;&nbsp;of Ashur al-Nagi, a man who&nbsp;&nbsp;grows from humble beginnings to become a great leader,&nbsp;&nbsp;a legend among his people. Generation after&nbsp;&nbsp;generation, however, Ashur's descendants grow further&nbsp;&nbsp;from his legendary example. They lose touch with&nbsp;&nbsp;their origins as they amass and then squander large&nbsp;&nbsp;fortunes, marry prostitutes when they marry at all,&nbsp;&nbsp;and develop rivalries that end in death. The&nbsp;&nbsp;community's upper class keeps a watchful eye on the&nbsp;&nbsp;descendants of al-Nagi for fear&nbsp;&nbsp;of losing their privileges, but they find no threat&nbsp;&nbsp;of another such as Ashur. Not, that is, until the&nbsp;&nbsp;al-Nagi who, like his noble&nbsp;&nbsp;ancestor, finds his power once again from among&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>The Harafish</i>, or the common people.&nbsp;&nbsp;Through the strength of their numbers and their&nbsp;&nbsp;passion, the glory of the name of&nbsp;&nbsp;al-Nagi is restored. "Of all&nbsp;&nbsp;[Mahfouz's] experiments in recent decades, this&nbsp;&nbsp;is the one which owes least to western inspiration&nbsp;&nbsp;and is probably the most successful. <i>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Harafish</i>, fluently translated by&nbsp;&nbsp;Catherine Cobham, makes accessible and engrossing reading."&nbsp;&nbsp;— <i>The Washington Post Book&nbsp;&nbsp;World</i>.</p> <p>From the Nobel Prize winner and author of The Cairo Trilogy comes an epic novel that chronicles the dramatic history of the al-Nagi family--a family that moves, over many generations, from the height of power and glory to the depths of decadence and decay. </p>

Author(s): Naguib Mahfouz  

ISBN 10: 0385423357
ISBN 13: 9780385423359
Pages: 406
Format: Paperback
Publication: September 1997
Edition: 1