Editing Naguib Mahfouz (section)

=== Reception ===
Mahfouz's translated works received praise from American critics:

"The alleys, the houses, the palaces and mosques and the people who live among them are evoked as vividly in Mahfouz's work as the streets of London were conjured by Dickens."
—''[[Newsweek]]''<ref name="aucp"/>

"Throughout Naguib Mahfouz's fiction there is a pervasive sense of metaphor, of a literary artist who is using his fiction to speak directly and unequivocally to the condition of his country. His work is imbued with love for Egypt and its people, but it is also utterly honest and unsentimental."
—''[[Washington Post]]''<ref name="aucp"/>

"Mahfouz's work is freshly nuanced and hauntingly lyrical. The Nobel Prize acknowledges the universal significance of [his] fiction."
—''[[Los Angeles Times]]''<ref name="aucp"/>

"Mr. Mahfouz embodied the essence of what makes the bruising, raucous, chaotic human anthill of Cairo possible."
—''[[The Economist]]''<ref name="aucp"/>

==== Nobel Prize for Literature ====
Mahfouz was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature, the only Arab writer to have won the award. Shortly after winning the prize Mahfouz was quoted as saying:
{{Blockquote|The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international level. The Arab world also won the Nobel with me. I believe that international doors have opened, and that from now on, literate people will consider Arab literature also. We deserve that recognition.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Luxner |first=Larry |date=March–April 1988 |title=A Nobel for the Arab Nation |url=https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/198902/a.nobel.for.the.arab.nation.htm |magazine=Aramco World |location=Houston |publisher=Aramco Services Company |access-date=June 21, 2020 }}</ref>}}

The Swedish letter to Mahfouz praised his "rich and complex work":

{{Blockquote|[It] invites us to reconsider the fundamental things in life. Themes like the nature of time and love, society and norms, knowledge and faith recur in a variety of situations and are presented in thought-provoking, evocative, and clearly daring ways. And the poetic quality of your prose can be felt across the language barrier. In the prize citation you are credited with the forming of an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind.<ref>{{cite web|title=Award Ceremony Speech|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1988/presentation-speech.html|website=Nobel Prize.org|publisher=Nobel Media|access-date=24 October 2013}}</ref>}}

Because Mahfouz found traveling to Sweden difficult at his age, he did not attend the award ceremony.