From fanciful folktales to realistic vignettes, Egyptian Tales and Short Stories of the 1970s and 1980s introduces the reader to the work of Egyptian writers who deserve world attention.

Illustrating the diversity and vitality of modern Egyptian literature, the stories in this collection range widely in setting, theme and treatment – urban, rural, contemporary, timeless, political. realistic, fantastic – yet all provoke thought on some aspect of the human condition. The order of these stories, states William Hutchins in his introduction, “is intended to approximate a life cycle starting with courtship and proceeding with marriage, birth, children, various adult activities both earnest and in jest, to consideration of the relationship between adults and their parents, and ending finally with death. The book may then serve to some extent as an introduction to contemporary Egyptian society as well as to new Egyptian short stories.”