Naguib Mahfouz: Adrift on the Nile

At once thrilling and deeply serious,

Adrift on the Nile is a tale that exposes the crisis of man — and artist — in modern times.

"Throughout Mahfouz's fiction there is a pervasive sense of metaphor, of a literary artist who is using his fiction to speak directly and unequivocally to the condition of his country. His work is imbued with love for Egypt and its people, but is also utterly honest and unsentimental."

— Washington Post "Naguib Mahfouz is the greatest writer in one of the most widely understood languages in the world, a storyteller of the first order in any idiom."

— Vanity Fair "What is fascinating about this refreshingly gifted writer is that his fiction is at once simple and subtle, serious and ironic, realistic and symbolic, local and universal.

Naguib Mahfouz is a writer to read and admire."

— Toronto Globe "Naguib Mahfouz virtually invented the novel as an Arab form. He excels at fusing deep emotion and soap opera."

— New York Times Book Review "Mahfouz is the single most important writer in modern Arabic literature."