I think I might be slightly biased aboud Mahfouz as a writer, as I read his trilogy on Caïro when I was in that very city and read his book about Ahknaten when travelling through the desert and seeing Egypts wonders......also his 'adrift on the Nile' had me thrilled after seeing for myself those elegant white houseboats ( though not its decadent occupants...)on the Nile.
( and now in Medan, Sumatra after some 26 hours of travel and am reading and rereading Hella's Haase books about the Dutch in Indonesia). I'll be away for a month....tomorrow I'll see the orang utangs in the protected forest of Sumatra.)
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