Tales from Dayrut: Short Stories

by Mohamed Mustagab, Humphrey Davies (Translator)

Overview

This collection of fourteen connected stories and a novella, From the Secret History of Numan Abdel Hafez, takes us deep into Upper Egypt and the village of Dayrut al-Sharif, in which Mohamed Mustagab was born. To depict a world renowned for its poverty, ignorance, vendettas, and implacable code of honor, Mustagab deploys the black humor and Swiftian sarcasm of the insider who knows his society only too well. When the stillness of a day's end is shattered by a single gunshot, poignant beauty merges seamlessly into horror, and when a police officer seeking to unravel a murder finds himself with more body parts than he knows what to do with, violence tips as easily into farce. In counterpoint, the author's often surrealist imagination explores the mysteries of a landscape where seductive women haunt dusty paths and a man may find himself crushed like a worm beneath another's foot. Elsewhere, the horizons of 'my village' expand to include other countries (the author worked in the Arabian Peninsula for a number of years), where equally disastrous consequences follow on folly and self-delusion. Previously almost unknown in English, Mustagab's voice is both original and disturbing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617971730
Publisher:	American University in Cairo Press, The
Publication date:	10/01/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	214
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Mohamed Mustagab (1938-2006), born in the Upper Egyptian town of Dayrut, was general director of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, and wrote prolifically in the latter half of the twentieth century, receiving numerous prizes. From the Secret Life of Numan Abdel Hafez was chosen as one of the top hundred novels from the Arab world in the last century. Humphrey Davies is the translator of a number of Arabic novels, including The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany (AUC Press, 2004). He has twice been awarded the Saif Ghobash-Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.

Table of Contents

Dayrut al-Sharif

Hulagu 3

The Battle of the Camel 10

The Acacia Dog 14

Assassination 19

Bughayli Bridge 24

Operation Kidnap Amira 35

The Offering 40

Sunflowers 60

Horsemen Adore Perfumes 73

A Woman 78

The Edge of the Day 83

Naked He Went His Way 89

One Way Only 93

The J-B-Rs 102

The Secret History of Nu 'man Abd al-Hafiz

On His Birthplace and Lineage 117

On His Childhood and Youth 128

On Perdition 136

For the Majestic, and Also Beautiful, Lady! 145

An Intermediate Chapter 154

On the Empty Tomb 161

On the Circumcision 169

On How the Circumcision Was Completed 177

On the Days of Might 184

On the Preparations for the Wedding 190

On the Wedding! 198

Editorial Reviews

"Mohamed Mustagab transports the reader to the strange, distinctive world of rural Upper Egypt with its poverty, superstition, vendettas, honor killings, rumors and folklore. In his vigorous translation, Humphrey Davies captures Mustagab's rollicking style and vivid descriptive powers."—Saudi Gazette

"The real beauty in Mustagab's writing is a man looking back on the characters and environs of his childhood in the town of Dayrut, the stories are some times edging into the surreal and at times have a real dark satire element, the area he is talking about is a place rich in spirit and beliefs. This gives a great view of an area of Egypt I didn't know anything about. As ever Humphrey Davies does a wonderful job on translation but what else would you expect from the prize-winning translator."—Winstonsdad's Blog: best in translated fiction from all four corners

From the Publisher