The Final Hour A Modern Arabic Novel

by Mahfouz, Naguib; Allen, Roger

• ISBN13: 9789774163883
• ISBN10: 9774163885
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-15
• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press

Summary

Hamid Burhan, a retired government employee, and his loyal wife Saniya have built themselvesa home in the southern suburb of Helwan, away from the hustle and bustle of Cairo itself, wherethey raise their son and two daughters, expecting life to remain as blessed as it was in the photographof the happy family at a picnic in a Nileside park in the early 1930s. Events in the widerworld impinge-wars, revolution, peace with Israel-while Saniya and the old house in Helwanremain the bedrock of the family's values. But everyone else is buffeted in one way or anotherby the tumultuous processes of change in Egyptian politics and society.In this novel written in 1982, Naguib Mahfouz again uses a family saga, as he did in his CairoTrilogy, to reflect on the processes of enormous social transformation that Egypt underwent inthe space of a few generations in the twentieth century.

Author Biography

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 for Literature in 1988.

Roger Allen is professor of Arabic language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his translations are Naguib Mahfouz's Mirrors, Karnak Café, and Khan al-Khalili (AUC Press, 1999, 2007, 2008).