The Mirage

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title The Mirage
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Naguib Mahfouz
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:480
Dimensions(mm): Height 203,Width 133
Category/GenreModern and contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
ISBN/Barcode 9780307742582
ClassificationsDewey:FIC
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Random House USA Inc
Imprint Random House Inc
Publication Date 14 February 2012
Publication Country United States

Description

A stunning example of Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz's psychological portraiture, The Mirage is the story of an intense young man who has been so dominated by his mother that her death sets him dangerously adrift in a world he cannot manage alone. Kamil Ru'ba is a tortured soul who hopes that writing the story of his life will help him gain control of it. Raised by a mother who fled her abusive husband and became overbearingly possessive and protective toward her young son, he has long been isolated emotionally and physically. Now in his twenties, Kamil seeks to escape her posthumous grasp. Finding and successfully courting the woman of his dreams seems to promise salvation, until his ignorance of mature love and his fear and jealousy lead to tragedy.

Author Biography

Naguib Mahfouz was born in Cairo in 1911 and began writing when he was seventeen. His nearly forty novels and hundreds of short stories range from re-imaginings of ancient myths to subtle commentaries on contemporary Egyptian politics and culture. Of his many works, most famous is The Cairo Trilogy, consisting of Palace Walk (1956), Palace of Desire (1957), and Sugar Street (1957), which focuses on a Cairo family through three generations, from 1917 until 1952. In 1988, he was the first writer in Arabic to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in August 2006.

Reviews

"Mahfouz is a storyteller of the first order in any idiom." -Vanity Fair