This saga by the Egyptian Nobel laureate and author of the acclaimed Cairo Trilogy tells the story of the tumultuous rise and fall of the al-Nagi family, whose members struggle throughout the generations to recover its honor and live up to its glorious past. Ashur Abdullah, abandoned as an infant by the gates of a monastery in a poverty-stricken alley, is found and raised by the devout Sheik Afra Zaydan and his kind wife, Sakina. As he grows, Ashur's enormous physique belies his gentleness and piety, and he lives a modest life (despite a divorce and remarriage) as a cart driver, until his miraculous evasion of a plague and unyielding charity toward the common people of the alley — the harafish — cause them to rename him Ashur al-Nagi (Ashur the Survivor) and elevate him to clan chief. He enjoys a celebrated reign, but his sudden, mysterious disappearance one day leaves his son, Shams al-Din, to try to recover control of the clan and causes the people to weave legends of his life and supposed return. The book traces the successive generations of his family, whose fortunes vacillate widely throughout the years. Amid episodes of great drama and intrigue that include love affairs, marriages, divorces, betrayals, murders, abandonments, ascensions to power, and falls from grace, we meet such memorable characters as Samaha Sulayman al-Nagi, who flees execution for a murder he did not commit and who in exile, marries an independent woman, Mahasin, only to run from the law again; Zahira, a bewitching servant girl who divorces one man so that she can marry her stepson, and then divorces again to marry Aziz; and the last Ashur al-Nagi, who lives honorably despite his brother Fayiz's corrupt business dealings and suicide. This Ashur becomes the clan chief, at last restoring the family's reputation and realizing his namesake's legacy. Mahfouz's consummate storytelling abilities, marked by operatic events, vibrant characters, and resonant writing, result in another triumphant epic.
Pub Date: April 5, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-42324-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
