I Found Myself...The Last Dreams.

by Naguib Mahfouz, Hisham Matar (Translator)

After an assassination attempt and in waning health, Naguib Mahfouz became more cautious in his twilight years. At the same time, in nightly dreams, his imagination began to roam his beloved city, Cairo, with a rare freedom.

In this collection of vivid vignettes linked together by the author’s precisely rendered nocturnal wanderings through Cairo, figures from Mahfouz’s personal life blend with his anxieties about Egypt’s political past and future. Each dream is layered with philosophical and spiritual musings, hopes and disappointments. Over the course of the book, they build to a rich and complex picture of Mahfouz’s subconscious.

160 pages, Hardcover

Published May 29, 2025

About the author

Naguib Mahfouz (Arabic author profile: نجيب محفوظ) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays over a 70-year career. Many of his works have been made into Egyptian and foreign films.

Reviews

[Tonymess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful haunting entries from Naguib Mahfouz’s dream journal. They build a compelling picture of lost memories, à troubled nation & a life of observation. Translated by Hisham Matar with a nice anecdotal introduction, with stark B&W photos by his wife Diana Matar.

The writing is short sharp and on point, the only reason I’ve not given it 5 stars is it’s a costly book for a very very short read. Penguin seem to be doing this a lot recently.

[Bert · Rating 3 out of 5]

***(*)

I found myself stabbed in the neck, unable to write for extended periods, no longer allowed to freely roam through the streets of Cairo. But I could wander around the city in dreams, and write them down in little vignettes.

I saw myself from the inside, my inner world, my subconsciousness. I found old loves, lost memories and political ideas I tend to forget.

I found myself editing these dreams. As I recounted them I left out some details, emphasised some, slightly changed others. Maybe I even added a few new ones.

I saw myself. And what I had lost.

[Sophie Al Shihabi - Dreesmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicate vignettes, that capture Cairo, love, longing, and hope. Diana Matar’s pictures give it additional depth and Hisham Matars foreword places these dreams further in context. Highly recommend!