This is a collection of stories by the Egyptian writer Nagieb Mahfouz (or any other way of writing نجيب محفوظ ). This stories have been put together for a Dutch publication. The date of the publication is 1988, the very same year the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. So in the wake of the publicity due to this prestigious prize the publisher decided to treat the Dutch language users to this collection. This has been a good idea and action. The title of the collection is taken from one of the stories ‘The mosque in the alley’.   

This collection has put together 20 short stories. These stories about everyday life in Egypt have been written in a very meticulous way. The writer uses his pen in a way a surgeon uses his instruments to lay bare the inner structures of his patient in the operating theater. Mahfouz lays bare the structures of man and society. In these gripping stories Mahfouz writes about ordinary people who get stuck in the world of bureaucracy and the police and the traditions. The ordinary man is often a victim who hopes to get help, but who knows as well that good fate is not on his side.

Nagieb Mahfoez – De moskee in de steeg – 1988