Newly translated, Cairo Modern, one of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz's most daring novels, is the tale of a doomed ménage a trois.

In 1930s Cairo there are vast social and economic inequities. It is also a time when the universities have just opened to women and heady new ideas from Europe are stirring the young. Mahgub is a fiercely proud student, determined to keep both his poverty and his lack of principles secret. His lack of connections makes finding a job nearly impossible, and in his desperation he agrees to marry the mistress of a high government official in return for a job. On the wedding day he discovers that his wife-to-be is Ihsan, his best friend's beautiful former girlfriend, a poor student whose life has been ruined by her seductiveness. Despite their embarrassment, the two go through with the sham marriage and become partners in a precarious plot to make their way in Cairo's high society and outwit their ill fortune.

Translated by William M. Hutchins.