LEADER 03263oam 22005534a 450 001 9910968221603321 005 20240123201609.0 010 $a9780815608264 010 $a0815608268 035 $a(CKB)3710000000439968 035 $a(EBL)3440581 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001534288 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11873087 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001534288 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11494529 035 $a(PQKB)10343051 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3440581 035 $a(OCoLC)1132664760 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse76458 035 $a(Perlego)973460 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000439968 100 $a20060501d2006 uy f 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aThieves in retirement $ea novel /$fHamdi Abu Golayyel ; translated from the Arabic by Marilyn Booth 205 $aFirst edition. 210 1$aSyracuse :$cSyracuse University Press,$d2006. 215 $a1 online resource (xviii, 126 pages) 225 1 $aMiddle Eastern literature in translation 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a9780815608523 311 0 $a0815608527 327 $aFront ; Contents; Translator's Acknowledgments; Introduction; Thieves in Retirement 330 8 $aHamdi Abu Golayyel offers a striking portrait of a marginalized Egyptian community, bringing to life the absurd and tragic characters who occupy the margins of society while paying tribute to a historical Cairene neighborhood. By turns comic, reverential, beautiful, and tawdry, the novel reveals a social climate where ruthlessness and goodness seem almost indistinguishable and humanity is on display in all its rich variety. The novelist's distinctive vision of Egypt's various postmonarchy political regimes and ideologies shapes this dark comedy of human relations and underground pursuits in late twentieth-century Egypt. Through intricate levels of allegory, puns, and double meanings, Abu Golayyel effectively plays on the rhetoric associated with the nationalist government of Gamal Abdel Nasser, including the post-Nasser turn toward international capitalism with its a consumer-oriented economy-and movement away from the workers' rights orientation of the 1960s. This novel represents a new voice and a new stage in contemporary Arabic literature, as it criticizes official ideologies, whether socialist, capitalist, or Islamist. Abu Golayyel's cast of memorable characters embodies the arbitrariness of life and the search for purpose and dignity in a social milieu that offers little of either. Marilyn Booth's translation fluently renders the novel's delicate levels of diction and rhythm, making this brilliant Egyptian novel available to a much-deserved wider audience. 410 0$aMiddle East literature in translation. 606 $aArabic fiction$y21st century$vTranslations into English 615 0$aArabic fiction 676 $a892.736 700 $aAbu? Julayyil$b H?amdi?$01803824 701 $aBooth$b Marilyn$0691165 801 0$bMdBmJHUP 801 1$bMdBmJHUP 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910968221603321 996 $aThieves in retirement$94351554 997 $aUNINA