![]() ![]() The Cairo Trilogy, written during Naguib Mahfouz’s era of social realism in the 1950s, provides a deep insight into the vibrant Egyptian culture and the rhythms of everyday life. She does not know what happens beyond the four walls of her house: her knowledge of the outside world is constrained by the filtered gaze of her window grates. Returning home intoxicated late into the night, it is his subservient wife, Amina, who dutifully awaits him – an integral part of her domestic routine. Whilst he commands absolute power in the household, his nightly excursions of reckless entertainment are concealed from the family. ![]() From the very beginning of the Trilogy, the double life of the patriarch is clear. ![]() “In these uncertain times”: a phrase that has become almost a cliché in discourse surrounding the coronavirus its aim to console having quite the opposite effect.įor the family of Al-Sayyid Ahmad Al-Jawad in The Cairo Trilogy however, these very words echo their struggle in the turbulent era of 20 th century Egypt, as the family navigate the challenges of modernity and the destructive impact of British colonial rule amidst the Egyptian struggle for independence.Īn extensive family saga spanning three generations over three novels – Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street – the narrative centres around the daily life of the conservative Al-Jawad family, controlled by a tyrannical father. ![]()
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