A collection of Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz's stories, including 18 never-published ones found recently among his old papers, will be out on his birthday on December 11.
The stories are resplendent with Mahfouz's delicate and poignant observations of everyday happenings and take the reader deep into the beating heart of Cairo.
They came to light in September 2018 when Egyptian academic Mohamed Shoair stumbled across a handwritten manuscript of 50 stories by Mahfouz with the attached label: For publishing 1994.' Eighteen of these stories have never been published before and will appear in the collection titled The Quarter, brought out by Pan Macmillan.
Mahfouz was born in Cairo in 1911 and began writing when he was 17. A student of philosophy and an avid reader, his works range from reimaginings of ancient myths to subtle commentaries on contemporary Egyptian politics and culture.
Over a career that lasted more than five decades, he wrote 34 novels, 13 short story anthologies, numerous plays and 30 screenplays.
The year 1994 was very difficult for Mahfouz. The publication of The Satanic Verses brought with it unwanted attention from Islamic extremists, who despite police protection, succeeded in stabbing the 82-year-old novelist in the neck outside his home in Cairo.
Mahfouz survived, but the nerves in his right arm were permanently damaged and he could no longer write for more than a few minutes a day.
As a result, he dictated most of his stories. For the last decade of Mahfouz's life most of his work were short narratives, such as Echo of An Autobiography and Dreams.
Mahfouz's most famous works in English are The Cairo Trilogy, The Children of Gebelawi, The Thief and the Dogs and Autumn Quail. Mahfouz received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988, the first writer in Arabic to do so. He died in August 2006.
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