September book club

Welcome to our group
We are running a monthly book club in London in person 📖📚

This month, we are reading Children of Alley (اولاد حارتنا )by Naguib Mahfouz.

For a bit of background: Children of the Alley was first serialized in Al-Ahram newspaper.Its publication was soon halted after objections from religious authorities, who accused the novel of blasphemy. As a result, the book remained unpublished in full within Egypt for many years, until it was finally released in Beirut by Dar Al-Adab. It wasn’t until 2006 that it was republished domestically by Dar Al-Shorouk.

Tragically, the controversy surrounding the novel culminated in a violent attempt on Naguib Mahfouz’s life in 1995, when two young extremists—acting under the influence of fatwas branding him an apostate—stabbed him in the neck. Though he survived, the attack left him with permanent nerve damage, significantly impairing his ability to write.

For English hard copy :

https://www.waterstones.com/book/children-of-the-alley/naguib-mahfouz/peter-theroux/9781035907311

For Arabic hard copy :

https://asfar.io/product/awlad-haratina-9789778616200

Arabic Audiobook :

https://open.spotify.com/show/7vF1Zvoo6yAchFOzme89gg?si=YOkkd4JvQ-SOh6G7pCumQw