“My son, the law is the law. My duty lies in studying your case, not going on a wild-goose chase.”

“But all you’ve heard of him, doesn’t that convince you how strange he is?”

“I am a lawyer. I know that it is only the law that will decide your fate.”

“There might be a chance. I might be foolish, but during the little time I’ve got, please do what I ask of you.”

“I have no means of finding him.”

“You are a man of experience. Your neighbor seems…”

“Contacting him is not impossible, but it requires a lot of time, one thing we haven’t got. We must contact all our embassies abroad. He might have moved in the meantime.”

The memory that is fading, dying away. So far and yet almost there, almost. The cloud formations in the sky, blown about carelessly in the wind. Pain tearing away at you behind prison bars. The blind questions leading to the oppressing answer. “It seems there’s no use relying on anyone.”

The lawyer smiled understandingly. “There is only use in what is reasonable.”

Saber shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “Oh! Let anything happen now.”

About the Author

Naguib Mahfouz

The Search

Naguib Mahfouz was one of the most prominent writers of Arabic fiction in the twentieth century. Born in Cairo in 1911, he began writing when he was seventeen. Over his long career, he wrote nearly forty novel-length works and hundreds of short stories, ranging from re-imaginings of ancient myths to subtle commentaries on contemporary Egyptian politics and culture. His most famous work is The Cairo Trilogy (consisting of Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street), which focuses on a Cairo family through three generations, from 1917 until 1952. In 1988, Mahfouz became the first writer in Arabic to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in August 2006.

Other Titles

BOOKS BY NAGUIB MAHFOUZ

The Beggar, The Thief and the Dogs, Autumn Quail (omnibus edition)

Respected Sir, Wedding Song, The Search (omnibus edition)

The Beginning and the End

The Time and the Place and Other Stories

Midaq Alley

The Journey of Ibn Fattouma

Miramar

Adrift on the Nile

The Harafish

Arabian Nights and Days

Children of the Alley

Echoes of an Autobiography

The Day the Leader Was Killed

Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth

Voices from the Other World

Khufu’s Wisdom

Rhadopis of Nubia

Thebes at War

Seventh Heaven

The Thief and the Dogs

Karnak Café

Morning and Evening Talk

The Dreams

Cairo Modern

Khan al-Khalili

The Mirage

THE CAIRO TRILOGY

Palace Walk

Palace of Desire

Sugar Street

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