Both revolution and romance are at the heart of Return of the Spirit, first published in Arabic in 1933. The story of a patriotic young Egyptian and his extended family, ending with events surrounding the 1919 revolution—for al-Hakim, a literal awakening of the Egyptian spirit—Return of the Spirit with its strong expression of nationalist solidarity has particular resonance now. Admiration for the novel by the military entrepreneurs who replaced Egypt’s monarchy in 1952 temporarily dampened enthusiasm for it; but the 2011 Tahrir revolution has made it seem once again as fresh as today’s news.
Return of the Spirit
Tawfiq al-Hakim
Translated byWilliam M. Hutchins
290 pp.
15X23cm
ISBN 9789774165801
For sale only in the Middle East
$17.95
Tawfiq al-Hakim (1898–1987), Egypt’s best known playwright, did for the Arabic theater what Naguib Mahfouz did for the Arabic novel. He wrote over seventy plays, as well as a number of novels and short stories and an autobiography.
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