Naguib Mahfouz

Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who lived from 1911 to 2006 and won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy praising an Egyptian narrative art, formed through works ranging from clear sighted realism to evocative ambiguity, that speaks to all humanity; he remains the only Egyptian ever to win the prize. Over a seventy year career he published thirty five novels, more than 350 short stories, twenty six screenplays and seven plays, with virtually all of his fiction set in Egypt and repeatedly using the image of the lane, or alley, as a microcosm of the wider world. Regarded alongside Taha Hussein as one of the first writers to bring existentialist themes into Egyptian literature, his best known works include The Cairo Trilogy and Children of Gebelawi, and many of his novels have been adapted into Egyptian and international films.