Children of the Alley

Naguib Mahfouz · 1911–2006 · Egypt

Originally Awlad Haratina (Arabic) · translated by Peter Theroux

Why it matters

Five generations of one Cairo alley reenact, thinly veiled, the stories of Adam, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad under the shadow of a reclusive patriarch named Gebelawi. Banned outright in Egypt and, decades later, the pretext for the extremist's knife that nearly killed Mahfouz.

At a glance

Dense religious allegory spread across five linked novellas demands unpacking who each figure represents.