Novel · A way to begin
Midaq Alley
زقاق المدق
Naguib Mahfouz · 1947
Synopsis
In a working-class alley of old Cairo, near Khan al-Khalili, in the mid-1940s, a small community lives side by side: the Kirsha at the café, Abbas the barber, Umm Hamida the matchmaker, Radwan al-Husseini, Zaita who makes cripples for begging, the wealthy merchant Salim Alwan. Hamida, beautiful and ambitious, raised by Umm Hamida, dreams of escaping the monotony of the alley. To win her and earn money, Abbas joins the British army, while the war dangles other lives before everyone.
Context
The novel appeared in 1947. It has been described as a gallery of characters whose features the author exaggerates, a satire of types rather than of individuals, with the alley as a microcosm of Egyptian society at a moment of transformation. Trevor Le Gassick translated it into English in Beirut in 1966, and Antoine Cottin into French as early as 1970, under the title Passage des miracles, often reissued since. Mexican cinema made it into El callejón de los milagros in 1995.
Who it is for
An ensemble novel with many characters; translated into both languages, and reprinted several times in France.
Prizes and reception
A novel by the first Arab writer crowned by the Swedish Academy; its alley has travelled as far as Mexico.
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