Under the Naked Sky: Short Stories from the Arab World (Modern Arabic Writing) Hardcover – 1 April 2001

Excellent read!

Just received the book only to find that it looks used I wouldn’t mind this if I’d bought a second hand book but this one is supposed to be new I paid for a new new!Very disappointed

although crafted and fluent, these stories are emblematic of the long row women in the Arab world will have to hoe in order to write for its own pure pleasure. there is so much Arab women writers have to purge that most choose to live in exile. thus, their stories are horrifying, painful, and difficult. veiled like their authors, the meaning and symbolism of these stories are hidden under layers and layers of Mahfouz's great Arab civilization, which for these Arab women writers is not for the better but for the worse.

Quite bleak sometimes and meanings or literary intentions often hard for the Western reader to really grasp, due to unfamiliarity with literary and cultural allusions. Nevertheless a good enough introduction to 20th century Arabic literature and socio-cultural preoccupations.