{"product_id":"autumn-quail-by-naguib-mahfouz","title":"'Autumn Quail' by Naguib Mahfouz","description":"\u003ch4 data-start=\"34\" data-end=\"523\"\u003eIn the aftermath of Egypt’s 1952 revolution, Isa al-Dabbagh watches the political order that formed him disappear almost overnight.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"34\" data-end=\"523\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eFirst published in Arabic in 1962 as \u003cem data-start=\"562\" data-end=\"586\"\u003eAl-Summān wa-al-Kharīf\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem data-start=\"588\" data-end=\"602\"\u003eAutumn Quail\u003c\/em\u003e is a compact novel about political transition as a private catastrophe. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eIsa drifts through resentment, nostalgia, sexual failure and increasingly desperate attempts to recover a vanished version of himself. The title’s migratory bird becomes an image of lives scattered by a seasonal change they cannot negotiate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"34\" data-end=\"523\"\u003eOnce a well-placed civil servant and loyal member of the old ruling party, he is removed from office, investigated for corruption and left without the status through which he understood himself. We follow a man whose entire interior architecture has been built from access, prestige and proximity to power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"34\" data-end=\"523\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFirst Anchor Books edition, 1990. Paperback. Light shelf wear and minor rubbing to covers and edges; clean and sound.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45850384498771,"sku":null,"price":16.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/Yourparagraphtext-2026-07-22T115929.665.png?v=1784685590","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/autumn-quail-by-naguib-mahfouz","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}