Two books

[mabith]

Like everyone else, I think, I tried to start Museum of Innocence but just couldn't bear it.

I generally read at least one non-western book every month. In April I read The Wedding Song by Naguib Mahfouz and All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu.

Comments

[zinnea]

All Our Names sounds pretty interesting, I might check it out.

[paperlibrarian]

What would you recommend for a first Mahfouz?

[mabith]

Right now I'd say his ancient Egypt set (three short novels published together, not a trilogy, under the title Three Novels of Ancient Egypt of which Khufu's Wisdom was my favorite) just as a good taste of his writing style. For a longer book Palace Walk, the first in his Cairo trilogy (which is still my favorite that I've read so far). Just warning, it does feature a tyrannical father though there's just one, maybe two, acts of violence physical violence from him. Authority is an overriding theme of the novel, as it's set during WWI when the British were occupying Egypt.

One trusted, older friend of mine felt that Midaq Alley was one of the best, but I haven't read that one yet.