The thief and the dogs

This is Raouf Alwan, the naked truth, a rotten corpse that soil cannot hide, as for the other, he has passed like yesterday, or like the first day in history, or like prophetic love, or like Aliash's servant! Do not be deceived by appearances; good words are deception, and a smile is a shrinking lip, and generosity is a defensive movement from the fingertips, and if it weren't for modesty, you wouldn't be allowed to cross the threshold. Critical realism is manifested in this novel by Naguib Mahfouz, and it is also considered the beginning of the absurd philosophy he presented in many of his subsequent works; it is, on one hand, a reflection of the societal reality that does not stop at the point of observation, but goes beyond it to a critical view of this reality, and on the other hand, it raises many questions about the absurdity of life that the hero of the novel, Sayed Mehran, lives, and his attempt to create value for this life, but he fails each time, which ultimately makes him surrender to his fate, declaring despair and the futility of remaining or resisting in this world that has become a den for dogs like his owner, Aliash, his wife, Nabuya, and the journalist Raouf. The novel also contains multiple implications regarding the political and social reality Egypt experienced after the July 1952 revolution, the hopes that were pinned on it, and the state it reached.