Miramar

Politically this novel deals with the historical past. Egypt has become less of a socialist country than what it appears to be. Influence and wealth reside over qualifications. One of Mahfouz's most lyrical novels, this story is an insider's look at old Alexandria, offering the classic plot of intertwined characters living in a small hotel in post-revolutinary Egypt. A retired journalist and his woman friend, who manages the hotel, combine efforts to re-examine an Egypt which has just undergone the Socialist Revolution. "Like all novels worth their salt, "Miramar" allows us the rare privilege of entering a national psychology, in a way that a thousandjournalistic articles or television documentaries could not acheive; and perhaps more importantly, beyond, that, we can encounter in it a racila temperment that has been widely misunderstood in the West." -John Fowles