Title: Echoes of an Autobiography

Author: Naguib Mahfouz (Egyptian)

Translator: Xue Qingguo

Publisher: Huawen Publishing House

Publication Date: November 2019

Format: Hardcover, 16 - mo

ISBN: 9787507552263

Price: 58.00 CNY

"Echoes of an Autobiography" is a summary of Mahfouz's eventful life and the crystallization of his wisdom after attaining a profound understanding of life. Readers familiar with his literary career will notice that many of the themes explored in his works are reproduced in this book in a more concise and artistic form. As he himself put it, he granted himself considerable freedom while writing this book. Therefore, this is not a personal autobiography in the strict sense. However, it is precisely this freedom that transforms this "quasi - autobiography" of Mahfouz into a "biography of humanity".

"Echoes of an Autobiography", this "quasi - autobiography" of Mahfouz, is also a biography of humanity. It offers us a panoramic view of life: from childhood to youth, from maturity to old age, love and hatred, good and evil, suffering and happiness, dreams and reality, the struggle between life and death, the confrontation between the spirit and the flesh, the hardships of making a living, and the perseverance in pursuit... all are condensed within this concise volume. Whether it is those paragraphs that contain profound meaning in plain language and subtle insights in ordinary words, or the passages full of poetic charm that come into view from time to time, they can all inspire endless contemplation and reverie.

Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer, is the most renowned novelist in the contemporary Arab world. His early works include three long - historical novels such as Mockery of Fate. Subsequently, he turned his attention to social reality and created realistic works like New Cairo, Midaq Alley, and Beginning and End. The trilogy of Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street, published during this period, is widely regarded as a milestone in the history of Arab novels. Other important works he created later include Children of Gebelawi, The Harafish, and Arabian Nights and Days. During his literary career spanning over half a century, Mahfouz published a total of 37 medium - length and long novels, 14 short - story collections. He also adapted his works personally, bringing a large number of novels to the screen and stage. In 1988, Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Arabic - speaking writer to receive this honor. The Nobel Committee believed that his works "in general, are an illumination of life."

Xue Qingguo is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Arabic School of Beijing Foreign Studies University, and the vice - president of the Chinese Association for Arab Literature. He is mainly engaged in the research and translation of modern Arabic literature and culture. He has five monographs, such as The Grand Garden of Arab Culture, and 20 translated works, including My Solitude Is a Garden, Writing on the Horizon of Meaning, Lover from Palestine, and The Complete Works of Kahlil Gibran. He has won the "Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding" from the State of Qatar.

Echoes of an Autobiography / 001

Appendix: Conversations with Mahfouz / 239