The Harafish

The Harafish (1995) by Naguib Mahfouz — Condition: Very Good (Crappy Old Books)

Few writers can turn a single Cairo alleyway into an epic saga, but Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel laureate and literary magician, does exactly that in The Harafish (Doubleday, 1995, ISBN: 9780385405836). This sprawling novel tells the story of generations of one family, beginning with Ashur al-Nagi, the larger-than-life patriarch, and rippling down through his descendants, heroes and wastrels alike. Around them hums the harafish—the ordinary people, the masses of Cairo—whose struggles, laughter, and losses form the novel’s true heartbeat.

Mahfouz blends myth and realism, timeless allegory and intimate detail. The novel feels like both a parable and a soap opera: there are love affairs, betrayals, rises, falls, and an endless negotiation between power and morality. It’s Shakespearean in scope, Arabian Nights in atmosphere, and unmistakably Mahfouz in its compassion and bite.

Now, the copy: it hails from the unabashedly frank vaults of Crappy Old Books, and it’s rated Very Good. That means the dust jacket is bright with only the tiniest scuffs, the spine is sturdy, and the pages are clean and tight. There’s the faintest trace of age and handling—call it the patina of having survived a Cairo alley or two—but nothing that detracts from its dignity. No scribbled genealogies of al-Nagis in the margins, no cumin-scented stains, no evidence of alleyway dust worked into the binding. Just a crisp, well-preserved book that belies its years.

In short: The Harafish is Mahfouz at his grandest—an epic of family, fate, and the ordinary people who bear the weight of history. This copy is in Very Good condition: handsome, sturdy, and entirely ready to command a little shelf-space of its own. Another noble survivor from Crappy Old Books, where even sprawling Cairo dynasties arrive tidy and complete.

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