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.

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.

my very first taste of the author. some of the tales left me stupefied. tak tercapai akalku. 'the seventh heaven' is the longest, and i liked it the most.

افضل قصة قرأتها في حياتي!
ما اعظمك يا محفوظ

I had originally thought of giving two stars to this collection of short stories, but after further reflection realized that because of their sheer pointlessness and lack of imagination they had earned a single star. Even the headline short story, "They Seventh Heaven," which makes an attempt at a plot and some sort of meaning, is ultimately uninteresting. The author is not telling me something profound by putting the souls of historical figures into the bodies of common people and a feeble attempt at enigmaticness at its end simply comes off as shallow. And that would have been the high point of all of these stories.

A short taste of short stories from Mahfouz from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I'm struck by The Haunted Woods, A Man of Awesome Power, and mostly Room No. 12, which I really want to discuss with someone. The jacket says supernatural stories and there are plenty of skeletons and ghosts and angels and spiritual guides to heaven. I find plenty of class, religion, and politics as well. These are fable/parables that are more accessible, political Borges stories to me.

قصة فريدة ورائعة جدد نجيب فيها ثوبه تألق وألفها بتسلطن مذهل.. اسعدتني جدا وبهرتني ...

The Seventh Heaven: Supernatural Tales by Naguib Mahfouz (2006)

Awesome collection of stories. Hard to pick one personal favorite.

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

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.

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