The Beggar, the Thief and the Dogs, and Autumn Quail

Anchor proudly presents a new omnibus volume of three novels--previously published separately by Anchor--by Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Assembled here is a collection of Mahfouz's artful meditations on the vicissitudes of post-Revolution Egypt. Diverse in style and narrative technique, together they render a rich, nuanced, and universally resonant vision of modern life in the Middle East. The Beggaris a complex tale of alienation and despair. In the aftermath of Nasser's revolution, a man sacrifices his work and family to a series of illicit love affairs. Released from jail in post-Revolutionary times, the hero ofThe Thief and the Dogsblames an unjust society for his ill fortune, eventually bringing himself to destruction.Autumn Quailis a tale of moral responsibility, isolation, and political downfall about a corrupt bureaucrat who is one of the early victims of the purge after the 1952 revolution in Egypt.

Naguib Mahfouz was born in Cairo in 1911 and began writing when he was seventeen. The author of more than thirty novels and fourteen collections of short stories, he was awarded the Novel Prize in Literature in 1988. He lives with his family in the Cairo suburb of Agouza.