Beggar, The Thief and the Dogs, Autumn Quail

Anchor proudly presents a new omnibus volume of three novels--previously published separately by Anchor--by Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Assembled here is a collection of Mahfouz's artful meditations on the vicissitudes of post-Revolution Egypt. Diverse in style and narrative technique, together they render a rich, nuanced, and universally resonant vision of modern life in the Middle East. The Beggar is a complex tale of alienation and despair. In the aftermath of Nasser's revolution, a man sacrifices his work and family to a series of illicit love affairs. Released from jail in post-Revolutionary times, the hero ofThe Thief and the Dogs blames an unjust society for his ill fortune, eventually bringing himself to destruction. Autumn Quail is a tale of moral responsibility, isolation, and political downfall about a corrupt bureaucrat who is one of the early victims of the purge after the 1952 revolution in Egypt. "The incredible variety of Mahfouz's writing continues to dazzle our eyes."--The Washington Post "[Naguib Mahfouz] is not only a Hugo and a Dickens, but also a Galsworthy, a Mann, a Zola, and a Jules Romains."--Edward Said, The London Review of Books