The Quarter by Naguib Mahfouz Translated from Arabic by Roger Allen Short stories Saqi Books September 24, 2019 The Quarter is a time capsule. Found in 2018, these eighteen short stories written in the 1990s offer core samples of Egypt’s cultural layers. Its internal ideological conflicts and agitation from external sociopolitical forces inform the recurring themes of superstition, authoritarianism, and the oppression of women and poor people. Magical realism and mystical encounters regularly occur in this imaginary triangulated terrain of the cellar, the fort, and the fountain, where prodigal residents, bosses, Sitts (grandma, lady, madam), and women of assorted degrees of sexual virtue are counseled, blessed, judged or cursed by the Head of the Quarter and the mosque Imam. Streamlined narrative structure and thumbnail characterizations suggest influences from the parables of the Qur’an and the Christian Bible. Prose with poetic sensibilities that encourage readers to...
