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Fadi Azzam
The Coffeehouse
RRP: Price: £16.99
Haus Price: £13.60
Friends of Haus: £12.75
Publication Date:
2011-03-21
ISBN:
9789774163517
Format:
Hardback
Territory:
UK & Commonwealth
Category:
AUC Fiction - Distributed Titles, New Titles
Pages:
208
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By Naguib Mahfouz
A novel of loss and memory from the Egyptian Nobel laureate
On a school playground in the stylish Cairo suburb of Abbasiya, five young boys become friends for life, making a nearby cafe, Qushtumur, their favourite gathering spot forever. One is the narrator, who, looking back in his old age on their seven decades together, makes the other four the heroes of his tale, a Proustian (and classically Mahfouzian) quest in search of lost time and the memory of a much-changed place.
In a seamless stream of personal triumphs and tragedies, their lives play out against the backdrop of two world wars, the 1952 Free Officers coup, the defeat of 1967 and the redemption of 1973, the assassination of a president, and the simmering uncertainties of the transitional 1980s. But as their nation grows and their neighbourhood turns from the green villa-studded paradise of their youth to a dense urban desert of looming towers, they still find refuge in the one enduring landmark in their ever-fading world: the humble coffeehouse called Qushtumur.
Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) was born in the crowded Cairo district of Gamaliya. He wrote nearly 40 novel-length works, plus hundreds of short stories and numerous screenplays. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988. His most recent works to appear in English translation are Before the Throne and The Mirage (AUC Press, 2009)
Translated by Raymond Stock