Autumn Quail

Three By Mahfouz represents a comprehensive collection of Mahfouz's work on twentieth-century life. These novels, previously published separately by Anchor, are meditations on the vicissitudes of post-Revolution Egypt. While they are diverse in style and narrative technique, together they render a vision of modern culture that is rich, nuanced, and utterly unique -- both specific to the Middle East and with implications for the universal dilemmas of contemporary life.

"The Beggar" is a complex tale of alienation and despair. Unable to achieve psychological renewal in the aftermath of Nasser's revolution, a man sacrifices his work and family to a series of illicit love affairs that intensify his feelings of estrangement. A passionate outcry against irrelevance, and a masterful work of fiction.

Released from jail in post-revolutionary times, the hero of "The Thief And The Dogs" blames an unjust society for his ill fortune, reverting to old, thieving habits, and eventually bringing himself to destruction in a cruel world that denies him redemption even when his cold heart is eventually softened by love.

"Autumn Quail" is a tale of moral responsibility, alienation, and political downfall featuring a corrupt young bureaucrat, Isa ad-Dabbagh, who is one of the early victims of the purge after the 1952 Revolution in Egypt. Mahfouz presents a remarkable portrait of the clash between past and present, a portrait that is ultimately an optimistic one in which the two will peacefully coexist.