Good morning

And the neighborhood of Qirmiz with its high stone walls, its doors closed on secrets, revealing no secret except to those who look inside. There, one sees a quarter bustling with the poor and the beggars, gathered in the courtyard to work and fulfill needs, or one sees a paradise rich with gardens, peace, and sanctuaries. From a small high window near the vault, a white face like the moon sometimes appears. I see it from my position at the window of our small house overlooking the neighborhood, and I am enchanted despite my childhood by its enchanting beauty. Three short stories carry within them many tales and characters, in which Naguib Mahfouz returns to his memories of the Egyptian neighborhood, then in the Abbasia area, which he moved to at the age of twelve. He presents us with vivid, detailed snapshots that carry the spirit of the place and its old features erased by time but still firmly rooted in Mahfouz’s memory. Thus, the story collection became a single interconnected fabric, moving between the two areas of Al-Hussein and Abbasia, filled with the scent of the past, nostalgia for memories, and their captivating aroma, expressing Mahfouz’s literary world, and the characters of this world that he narrated in many of his novels, the places that served as the stage for many of his events, and the political events he engaged with, starting from the 1919 revolution, the Free Officers movement, the setback, Sadat, and economic openness. Author: Naguib Mahfouz Dar Diwan for Publishing and Distribution