Chapters (40)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- INTRODUCTION
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- NOTES
- Naguib Mahfouz
- BOOKS BY NAGUIB MAHFOUZ
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The attack continued and was certainly severe enough to be termed a real raid. The country had probably seen nothing like it throughout the Second World War. Their nerves were really on edge. A man came rushing in from outside. “It’s British planes that are dropping the bombs!” he said in a voice which the whole blacked-out café could hear.
“Impossible!” scores of people yelled.
“I heard it on the Near East station!” he replied to confirm the news.
Comments began to pour out like hallucinations. Then the bombing stopped. Minutes passed in an anxious silence, and then the all-clear siren sounded. They released themselves from the grip of tension, and as the lights came on, gazed at each other with the same look of bewilderment that covers your face when you wake up after a long sleep. They were deciding whether to go or stay when the air-raid siren sounded again. Before long the explosions started again.
“The end seems even nearer than we thought,” Ibrahim Khairat whispered.
“Pray God we’re not a part of it,” Samir Abd al-Baqi whispered.
After an hour of torture, the all-clear siren sounded. They left the café quickly and got into Ibrahim Khairat’s car. They had only just gotten to Abu Ala’s bridge when the siren sounded for the third time. They stopped the car near the pavement. As there were no shelters nearby, they decided to stay in the car. “We’ve got to live!” Ibrahim Khairat said with a nervous laugh. “The price of stock in our lives keeps going up.”
About an hour later, they heard the all-clear siren. The Ford sped across the bridge, and then crossed the Zamalek Bridge headed for Sharia an-Nil. Just as the start of it, the air-raid siren sounded for a fourth time. They stopped the car near an open space. The raid continued and the bombing was heavy.
“Maybe they’re bombing particular targets,” Isa said to calm himself.
“Maybe they’re bombing at random,” said Samir anxiously.
“Bombing civilians is a terrible responsibility in the face of world opinion,” Abbas Sadiq said in a voice which sounded as though he had been hit by shrapnel himself.
“The best thing is to keep calm,” Ibrahim Khairat said.
The all-clear siren sounded half an hour later. The car sped along at top speed to get them home before the air-raid siren came on again.