افضل قصة قرأتها في حياتي!
ما اعظمك يا محفوظ

What a collection! Each of these stories where printed separately in a span of more than twenty years from 1973 to 1999, and handpicked by the translator, Raymond Stock, for this edition. They are all magnificent, but my favorites were ‘The Seventh Heaven’ (1979), ‘The Disturbing Occurrences’ (1979), ‘Room no. 12’ (1973), ‘Forgetfulness’ (1984), ‘Man of Awesome Power’ (1996) and ‘The Rose Garden’ (1999). Some of them, like Forgetfulness were so chilling I could not keep on reading afterwards. I was completely mesmerized. Also, “Man of Awesome Power” reminded me of Jim Carrey’s movie ‘Bruce Almighty’, but better; with no Hollywood sweet ending. If you’ve never read Mahfouz, this is a good place to start.

Tiene sus altibajos, pero no ha estado mal. Ha sido interesante.

I only disliked that these were short stories and not full fledged books of their own. I loved the imagery, and all the differing styles, as well as all the possible views of what the afterlife holds.

Rather dissapointing. Some of the stories are repetitive, and others seem to have a decent-enough premise for a middling Twilight Zone episode, but are tossed off without much development and they're all a little obvious and moralistic. The only one which really stood out for me was the one about a lady who checks into a hotel room and starts having more guests over than could imaginably fit in, I forget the title. That was refreshingly bizzare, with a very effective transition from apparent normalcy to grotesque disorder.

This novel captures you even when you're on your guard I was taken in by the first page. And it became one of my favorites in the 11th.
Not only this novel is full of wisdom. It's witty and makes you think (in a good way!) I have often stopped to contemplate the lines, the words and thoughts behind this masterpiece. And every time I reach va conclusion I realized that I had nothing after all.
I found it very amusing. You laugh and think while flipping this hungrily to know what comes next. It was a fun ride
The novel mixed zen teachings, Arabic heritage and melodrama. The events are so amusing. The plot was carefully written as not to make it look complicated. I could see this in a movie production... I wonder if it is.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because some of the other stories were a bit dull or mystifying.

I really enjoyed many of these stories. My favorite by far is "Beyond the Clouds," followed by "The Seventh Heaven" itself. However, there were a few I didn't care for at all. This may be a result of my own lapses of understanding, but there were about three or four that didn't speak to me at all.

the first story -- centering a murdered best friend and an afterlife taken from ancient Egypt -- is by far the most worth-reading of the collection. many of the other stories are generally interesting to read through, but can come off as both mild and a little too invested in social critique.

This is a fantastic (in both senses of the word) collection of thirteen stories written between 1973 and 1999 by one of my favorite fiction writers, Naguib Mahfouz. All involve strange events, and several involve death or the afterlife.

The title story, which accounts for about a third of the book and is undoubtedly the best, begins with one of the two main characters, named Raouf, coming out of a strange "cloud" to realize that he has been killed by his friend Anous as a result of a love rivalry. He arrives in the afterlife, and we are treated to brief statements about the afterdeath fates of a number of historical figures, from Gandhi and Lenin to Hitler and Stalin, although most of those named were from recent Egyptian history and I did not know who some of them were. This part is similar in a way to Dante, although the afterlife described is certainly not Christian (nor is it Islamic or ancient Egyptian); it is the product of Mahfouz' own imagination. Later, Anous is also killed, and the two return to Earth as spiritual guides, in the process changing names and roles. The theme is that what matters is not "virtue" or even belief in God but truth and resistance to evil in the form of oppression of the weak by the powerful.

The other stories are much shorter (the last few being only a couple pages each) and are ambiguous both as to the endings and what has actually happened, and as to their symbolic meanings. One, "Room No. 12" was made into a movie which was popular in Egypt. The book was fun to read and as with all of Mahfouz' work provokes thought.

It honestly might be because of the translation, but somehow these stories just didn’t do it for me. Great concepts, though!

this is my second foray into mahfouz’ work, and it’s alright! his surrealist work is less nuanced than his realist stuff, but what’s here is really really interesting in concept. it’s a book all about death, it pervades just about every short story contained within, and death comes in many different forms depending on the story, which is a really unique idea, i think. every brand of surrealism is taken from the culture of the author’s place of origin, and mahfouz really digs into surrealist ideas that seem very unique to a muslim way of seeing the world.
the writing isn’t my favorite, but i’ll reduce that to the translation being a bit unfavorable to mahfouz’ writing style.

Good read, but didnt drive me to re-read.