Best Books from Egypt
Recognised by major literary prizes and cultural institutions, Egypt occupies a distinctive place in world literature. Its writers have drawn on a unique cultural inheritance to produce work that speaks to readers in many languages, and its literary tradition continues to develop with new voices and forms.
Top 10 from Egypt
The Cairo Trilogy
Mahfouz's Nobel Prize-winning trilogy—Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street—follows the Al-Jawad family across three generations in Cairo from World War I to 1952. The supreme achievement of Arabic fiction is a vast, compassionate portrait of Egyptian life and society.
Palace Walk
The first volume of the Cairo Trilogy follows the patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad and his family in the alleyways of Islamic Cairo during World War I, as Egypt chafes under British occupation.