The Celebrations of the Dome

I am addicted to dreaming as my father was addicted to opium. Through dreaming, I change everything and create it, sweep the Zalat market and sprinkle it, dry out the overflowing sewers, demolish old houses and build tall buildings in their place, tame the policeman, elevate the behavior of students and teachers, provide food from the air, eliminate drugs and alcohol. Have you ever tried standing on the stage and acting out your character with all its contradictions and mistakes? The events of this novel revolve around a group of actors working in the theater, and they are asked to perform a play prepared by Abbas Karam Younes; one of the main figures in the novel, which deals with their real personalities as he sees them, highlighting the other side of the character, so all these characters begin to justify themselves and find motives and reasons behind their actions. These characters carry many connotations that Naguib Mahfouz was keen on in this work, and perhaps the most prominent of these characters is Karam Younes himself; the father who lived a troubled childhood that made him addicted to opium, denying principles and sanctities, believing only in materialism; and the character of his son Abbas, who also grew up in an environment devoid of values and principles, but revolts against this situation and clings to dreams, values, and virtue. His writing of the play was a major revolution. Author: Naguib Mahfouz Number of pages: 152