Our neighborhood boys – Naguib Mahfouz | Novel

Naguib Mahfouz's novel Children of Our Alley is considered one of the most important Arabic novels of the last century, and it is the greatest and most significant example of cases of book banning and censorship of freedom of creativity. Almost no list of the most banned books of literature and thought does not include that novel. The novel has sparked more controversy than any other contemporary Arabic novel, due to what extremists called the projections of the novel that contradict the principles of religion, and their interpretation that the characters of Children of Our Alley symbolize prophets. This led to an attempt to assassinate him in 1995, after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his entire work, becoming thus the only Arab writer to win that prize. Therefore, the book Children of Our Alley is the most famous by Naguib Mahfouz, although it is not considered the best among the masterpieces written by the great author, even though it is often quoted with the famous phrase known to every reader even if they haven't read it, which is that: the greatest danger of our alley is forgetfulness. Children of Our Alley was published in several editions over the years, and this is the version by Dar Al-Shorouk, which was issued as part of a distinguished series of Arabic novels.