Naguib Mahfouz's magnificent epic trilogy of colonial Egypt appears here in one volume for the first time. The Nobel Prize—winning writer's masterwork is the engrossing story of a Muslim family in Cairo during Britain's occupation of Egypt in the early decades of the twentieth century.

The novels of The Cairo Trilogy trace three generations of the family of tyrannical patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who rules his household with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence. Palace Walk introduces us to his gentle, oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija, and his three sons–the tragic and idealistic Fahmy, the dissolute hedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching intellectual Kamal. Al-Sayyid Ahmad's rebellious children struggle to move beyond his domination in Palace of Desire, as the world around them opens to the currents of modernity and political and domestic turmoil brought by the 1920s. Sugar Street brings Mahfouz's vivid tapestry of an evolving Egypt to a dramatic climax as the aging patriarch sees one grandson become a Communist, one a Muslim fundamentalist, and one the lover of a powerful politician.

Throughout the trilogy, the family's trials mirror those of their turbulent country during the years spanning the two World Wars, as change comes to a society that has resisted it for centuries. Filled with compelling drama, earthy humor, and remarkable insight, The Cairo Trilogy is the achievement of a master storyteller.

This long-awaited sequel to the classic, "The Genesis of Arabic Narrative Discourse (Saqi)", investigates a number of crucial questions related to the genre's development. Why did the Arabic short story take certain trajectories and what determined its path? Can the study of this genre provide us with wider insights into the culture as a whole? How have writers in one Arab country influenced those in others? These are just some of the issues addressed through close reading of authors such as Taha Husain, Yusuf Idris, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sharqawi, Edwar al-Kharrat and Jamal al-Ghitani, among many others. 'Quest for Identities' has been selected by Choice (Current Reviews for Academic Libraries) in the U.S.A. to appear on their annual Outstanding Academic Title list for 2009. Announced in the January 2010 edition of Choice.