Children of the Alley: A Novel

This book is a fictional retelling of the history of the great religious leaders of the Middle East, including Moses, Jesus and Mohammad, and a scientist to represent the modern era, when God is supposedly dead. The story is a bit predictable, because you know who the players are in advance, but Mahfouz plays with their histories enough to provide some surprises, and the way he interprets the temperament of the great spiritual leaders is designed to be entertaining and leave you wondering what will happen next. The writing is quite good, better than in many of his books, though I don't know how much of this is Mahfouz and how much is the translator. The book is fast-paced, and I found myself turning pages quite rapidly as the heroes appear on the scene, take on the bad guys, and effect spiritual enlightenment which never lasts long. I have read many Mahfouz books, and this one is a gem. I found it on a list of great world literature, and I agree with whoever made that list; this story is excellent. Highly recommended!

Mahfouz rewrote the religious history of mankind in an Egyiptian poor neighbourhood setting. The great greek writer Kazansakis did the same in few of his books specially in his novel "Christ recroosified". Great writers can't find better dramatic themes than the suffering associated with religions which constitute the everlasting struggle between good and evil. Great writers like Mahfouz are philosophers by nature who have overall prespective and still observe all details and penetrate it to the real essence of things. Mahfouz is trying to tell us that inspite of all religions, philosophers, prophets and sages, throughout the long history of mankind, still goodness and virtue can't gain a footing in our lives. The reason is that everything revolves around the human nature which consists of good and evil kneaded together. The human being will accept the call for virtue, love, philanthropy from religion but next day finds himself jeolous, hateful towards his brother and kills him, then mourns him for the rest of his life, then comes new religion and the divine comedy repeats itself. Even without God or religions and stanging on the soilid ground of science, still humans are unable to be happy, content and virtuous. The children of the alley is the story of the humanity stemming from God (Gabalawi) and his son Adam (Adham) and his three grandchildren, Moses(Gabal), Christ (Refaa) and Muhammad (Qassem) then follown by sience represented by (Arafa). the book is well written, easy to read and gets us emotionally invelvod. I highly recommend this book and give it five stars.

I thought that the book started a bit slowly, and the allegories were a bit heavy handed. On the plus side the author is an excellent story teller with some points about religion, science, and politics that are still valid 60 years later. Good sense of place.

I have come to love Naguib Mahfouz. I wished that I discovered him sooner. Beautiful story telling. The characters and plot develop naturally.

This is one of my favorite books. I first read it in its original language (Arabic) years ago when I was in Grade 8 or 9. Then I read it again in English and I was in love with it again. I'm re-reading it now in Arabic and English at the same time and having a fantastic time. Perhaps many people noticed the similarity of the stories with the bible not knowing that the writer actually based it also on the Qura'n. I find that heartwarming.

Wonderful book! I loved the allegories Mahfouz uses, and was a great addition to the reading group I read this with.

Through a succession of generations and characters Mafouz makes a strong case for humanity's penchant for forgetting the lessons learned by historical perspective. In the beginning, an eldest son is cast from his father's house, and loses his inheritance, which goes to a son by a different mother. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, this next inheriting son is tempted, and also falls prey to his human failings. The two cast-out sons establish residence in the alley outside the opulent security of their father's house. They spend their lives waiting to be forgiven, for their "ancestor" (father) to call them and their families back into the fold. In this way, the sons and the son's sons live the life of the alley, a microcosm of the misery of mankind, where the strong feed on the weak and violence dominates. The story becomes an allegory for all of mankind seeking salvation and forgiveness, a return to the source from which we came. Some of the descendants claim to have visions of their "ancestor" (God), changing their lives completely, spreading a doctrine of love and renewal; as well, each generation in the alley produces a "prophet". Life becomes so desperate that the people willingly change their ways and temporary peace settles on the alley. In each case, over time, all is forgotten and the people fall into despair again. And so the cycle repeats. The reader is left to look inward at his own role, his own small history, whether to choose the light or the darkness.

The book is a worthwhile experience in another culture's stories and writing styles. However, the tales become repetitive and the plots and outcomes are easily anticipated. I ultimately had to force myself to read to the end of this lengthy book.

As I read, I found it became more insightful about anything the main characters do or say. At the end, I had to struggle to find the message that the author tried to convey, though, that challenge seems to be the message.

It was bought as a gift. I know the novel. It’s a Nobel prize winner

This book is aesthetically beautiful, in my opinion, starting with its velvety cover that's so lovely to the touch—a remarkable detail for an edition that's already a bit old (1996). Beyond the cover, the content is deeply allegorical, with every passage seemingly having a purposeful meaning. While the narrative's repetition can feel a bit heavy if your goal is just to enjoy the plot and be excited by it, the story ultimately takes you on a spiritual path toward understanding our own nature and deeds with bare simplicity.

This is Mahfouz's greatest work, by far. An amazing piece of literature, with amazing themes of life, death, love, and religion that plays out over the centuries. Cannot recommend enough.

Everybody it seems has heard of Salman Rushdie, and the serious bother he landed in over The Satanic Verses—which culminated in a vicious knife attack in 2022, from which he survived to write his account of the incident and its consequences in Knife. Fewer people, however, have heard of Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz, and the equally-vicious assault on him in 1994, which left him with serious injuries that curtailed his writing career and probably shortened his life. I've read other books by this Nobel-Prize-winning writer, but I'm ashamed to confess that I hadn't heard of the attack on him, or the book which prompted it, Children of the Alley. I only discovered both because Rushdie mentions them in Knife—but better late than never. It's a far-ranging tale, in which—bearing in mind that where Rushdie offended only Muslims—Mahfouz went for broke and wrote a story equally-likely to offend Hebrews, Christians and Muslims, in this analogy of the Abrahamic religions. The setting is an alley in Cairo, ruled over by autocrat Gebelawi from his mansion located behind high walls at one end. Unquestioning obedience is expected from all, and any divergence from this is punished without explanation. Thus, when the lord favours his son Adham over his older sibling Idris, the latter is ejected from both mansion and alley to survive as best he may in the desert outside. He later returns to tempt Adham to pry into the forbidden secrets of their father, and Adham—encouraged by his wife—does so. Both are cast out, ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ to rue the day ‘Satan’ Idris tempted them, and to have sons who will play out the ‘Cain’ and ‘Abel’ story. Time moves on, with Gebelawi retreating into his mansion. His descendants in the alley believe he’s there—although he’s become invisible to them—and exist against the brooding question of who will inherit his estate. Gangsters rule the alley, terrorising the locals, until the rise of one Gebel, a ‘Moses’ figure who works to help the people overcome the power of the gangsters. In the next generation comes Rifaa, in the image of ‘Jesus’ and who comes to a sticky end through his own efforts to deliver the people—and in turn he’s followed by Qassem, whose story bears a strong resemblance to that of Mohammed. All three stories develop along the lines of those religious leaders, with the alley splitting over time into three distinct neighbourhoods based around them—representing Judaism, Christianity and Islam—with the three communities dividing in like manner, each with what they see as a superior claim to inherit the kingdom of Gebelawi. Mahfouz goes even further, with the figure of Arafa, a ‘magician’ who invents exploding-projectile-style weapons, and who effects the death of Gebelawi. He seems to represent the modern age, when belief in God has waned and science is in the ascendent. It’s an ambitious work which probably reads better in the original, but the English translation I bought does a good job of showing the similarities—not all of them positive—between the various faith-groups. It ends pretty much how you might expect—but I’ll leave you with my recommendation to give it a try. The work which shortened its author’s life, after all, deserves to be better known.