The Beginning and the End

Knyga minkštais viršeliais, 412 psl.

English kalba

Publikuota 1998, The American University in Cairo Press.

ISBN:: 978-977-424-112-3

The Beginning and the End (Arabic: بداية ونهاية) is a novel by Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, first published in 1949. The novel is set in the suburbs of Cairo in the late 1930s and deals with the trials and tribulations of a middle-class family who are struggling to keep out of poverty after the death of the father, the sole breadwinner. The novel is marked by very bold characterization for the time period and setting, and the story moves at a prolific pace as it tries to look at the world from each character's viewpoint.

Mahfouz has been credited with modernizing Arabic literature with his prolific writing style and his themes on existentialism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988.

(from Wikipedia entry on the book 20/11/2025)

The Beginning and the End (Arabic: بداية ونهاية) is a novel by Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, first published in 1949. The novel is set in the suburbs of Cairo in the late 1930s and deals with the trials and tribulations of a middle-class family who are struggling to keep out of poverty after the death of the father, the sole breadwinner. The novel is marked by very bold characterization for the time period and setting, and the story moves at a prolific pace as it tries to look at the world from each character's viewpoint.

Mahfouz has been credited with modernizing Arabic literature with his prolific writing style and his themes on existentialism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988.

(from Wikipedia entry on the book 20/11/2025)

2 leidimai

Fionnáin apžvelgė autoriaus Naguib Mahfouz knygą The Beginning and the End

The End is the Beginning

4 žvaigždutės

This is the second novel I read by Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz. The first, 'Miramar', never really captured my imagination, but I found this in a bookshop and decided to give him another chance. I am very glad I did. The novel takes place in a suburb of Cairo and begins with the death of a father in a family with four children (three brothers and a sister), the elder two young adults and the two younger brothers teenagers. The rest deals with the fallout of the loss of a breadwinner, a patriarch, and a friend. Each of the four siblings and their mother are, at different moments, central to the book's plot, and their competing motivations and morals remain rooted in their shared love for the other members of their family.

It takes place in the 1930s, based long before it was written, and the backdrop …

This is the second novel I read by Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz. The first, 'Miramar', never really captured my imagination, but I found this in a bookshop and decided to give him another chance. I am very glad I did. The novel takes place in a suburb of Cairo and begins with the death of a father in a family with four children (three brothers and a sister), the elder two young adults and the two younger brothers teenagers. The rest deals with the fallout of the loss of a breadwinner, a patriarch, and a friend. Each of the four siblings and their mother are, at different moments, central to the book's plot, and their competing motivations and morals remain rooted in their shared love for the other members of their family.

It takes place in the 1930s, based long before it was written, and the backdrop of impending war in Europe is mentioned vaguely at different key plot points. But this is a minor part of a slow-burn novel that shows how grief and autocracy collide with difficulty. The family are relegated from a middle-class existence to a lower class one with great speed, and their attempts to claw back a life include legal and illegal means. The moralistic and ethical dilemmas in moving up in a class-based society are the heart of this book, and they reach a climax with some of the most heart-wrenching final chapters I have ever read. A brilliant work of fiction.