Dreams Of Departure [Hardcover]

Naguib Mahfouz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2007

In this second collection of his writing based on his own dreams serialized in a Cairo magazine before his death in 2006 at the age of 94, Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz again displays his matchless ability to tell epic stories in uncannily terse form. As in the first volume (The Dreams, AUC Press, 2004), we meet more of the real (and unreal) figures that filled the author's life with glory and worry, ecstasy and ennui, in tales dreamed by a mind too fertile to ever truly rest. In them, a man sent by a victorious invader to open a storehouse holding the statue of Egypt's reawakening finds his access denied by a menacing reptile. An obscure writer dies, and a despairing inscription on his coffin turns his funeral into a massive demonstration, assuring the deceased of a deathless reputation. A man opens a stubborn gate at the end of a lengthy chore, staring at a lake over which loom the illuminated faces of those he has loved, but who are no more--in search of the soul who made him long to live forever. The ever more condensed and poetic episodes in Dreams of Departure movingly carry on Mahfouz's only major work after a knife attack in 1994 ironically inspired him to dream in print for his readers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Naguib Mahfouz was born in 1911 in the crowded Cairo district of Gamaliya. He studied philosophy at Cairo University, then worked in various government ministries until his retirement in 1971. His first three published novels were Khufu's Wisdom (1939), Rhadopis of Nubia (1943), and Thebes at War (1944), all of which are set in ancient Egypt. These political and philosophical critiques disguised as historical romances show the unmistakable signs of a burgeoning literary genius. He went on to write more than 35 other novel-length works, plus hundreds of short stories and numerous cinema plots and scenarios, many of which have been made into successful films. Naguib Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1988. In 2006, he died at the age of 95.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: AUC Press (April 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9774160673
• ISBN-13: 978-9774160677
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,134,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Over two hundred dreams are presented, July 8, 2007

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreams Of Departure (Hardcover)

Written by Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, and skillfully translated into English by biographer Raymond Stock, Dreams of Departure: The Last Dreams Published in the Nobel Laureate's Lifetime is the second collection Mahfouz's writings drawn from his own dreams, as serialized in a Cairo magazine in the time shortly before his death. Over two hundred dreams are presented; each one is brief, rarely more than a few paragraphs. An afterword by the translator rounds out this beautiful, prideful, and memorable collection. "Dream 118: I was in Ramle Station, always bustling with people, when at one end I caught sight of the man whose slogans the masses love to repeat, wooing a stunning woman. 'If you're doing something scandalous,' I whispered in his ear, 'then you should be discreet.' But he answered me bluntly, 'Is there anything more discreet than this?'" Highly recommended.