Sugar Street

Naguib Mahfouz · 1911–2006 · Egypt

Originally Al-Sukkariyya (Arabic) · translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Olive E. Kenny, and Angele Botros Samaan

Why it matters

The old patriarch dies and his grandsons split the family down a new fault line, one drawn to Marx and one to the Muslim Brotherhood, as Egypt edges toward the revolution their elders only glimpsed. The trilogy's close: history moving from the household out into the street.

At a glance

A wider political canvas and a third generation of characters to track, though still linear and clear.