Palace of Desire

Naguib Mahfouz · 1911–2006 · Egypt

Originally Qasr al-Shawq (Arabic) · translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Lorne M. Kenny, and Olive E. Kenny

Why it matters

Five years on, the widowed patriarch courts a lute-playing mistress half his age while his son Kamal loses his faith to Darwin and gives his heart to a woman far above his reach. The Cairo Trilogy's middle volume: appetite and doubt overtaking the household the first book left intact.

At a glance

Same unhurried realism as its predecessor, now carrying a wider cast and Kamal's intellectual crises.