Othman, a handsome young Moroccan man in Casablanca, returns home to discover his elderly French wife, Sofia, brutally murdered in their bedroom. Othman had been in desperate straits before meeting Sofia, but living with a woman more than forty years his senior caused him to seek relief in a steamy affair. Now the Moroccan police quickly zero in on Othman as the prime suspect in his wife's murder. Did he kill her for the money and his lover, or is...

"On a school playground in the stylish Cairo suburb of Abbasiya, five young boys become friends for life, making a nearby café, Qushtumur, their favorite gathering spot forever. One is the narrator, who, looking back in his old age on their seven decades together, makes the other four the heroes of his tale, a Proustian (and classically Mahfouzian) quest in search of lost time and the memory of a much-changed place. In a seamless stream of personal...

Jaafar Ibrahim Sayyed al-Rawi is guided by his motto, "let life be filled with holy madness to the last breath." He narrates his life story to a friend during one long night in a café in old Cairo. Through a series of bad decisions, he has lost everything: his family, his position in society, and his fortune. A man driven by his passions, he married a beautiful Bedouin nomad for love, and as a consequence pays a punishingly high price. From a life...