ON a school playground in the stylish Cairo suburb of Abbasiya, five young boys become friends for life, making a nearby Café, Qushtumur, their favourite gathering spot forever. This novel by Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz is about clinging to memories in changing times. One is the narrator, who, looking back in his old age on their seven decades together, makes the other four the heroes of his tale, a Proustian (and classically Mahfouzian) quest in search of lost time and the memory of a much changed place. In a seamless stream of personal triumphs and tragedies, their lives play out against the backdrop of momentous national and international events. But as their nation grows and their neighbourhood turns from the green, villa-studded paradise of their youth to a dense urban desert of looming towers, they still find refuge in the one enduring landmark in their everfading world: the humble coffeehouse called Qushtumur. Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) was born in the crowded Cairo district of Gamaliya. He wrote nearly 40 novel-length works, plus hundreds of short stories and numerous screenplays. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1988. The novel is translated by Raymond Stock who is writing a biography of Mahfouz. The 208-page book sells for LE70/$18.95
