Secrets Ibrahim Abdel Meguid
Grandad Hasan Yahya Taher Abdullah
Homecoming Yusuf Abu Rayya
In the Place for Prayers Mohammed Afifi
At the Level Crossing Abbas Ahmed
Sylvia Ahmed Alaidy
The Report of Mrs. R. Concerning the Last Day of the Week Radwa Ashour
Drops of Lemon Juice Ibrahim Aslan
The Palm Tree My Aunt Loved Hana Atia
Sundown Shukri Ayyad
A Small White Mouse Salwa Bakr
The Days of the Black Cat Rehab Bassam
The Room Next Door Mohamed El-Bisatie
A House for My Children Mahmoud Diab
Hashish Steals the Night Shehata al-Erian
Eyes Staring into Space Mansoura Ez Eldin
The Dancer Shawqi Faheem
A Place under the Dome Abdul Rahman Fahmy
The Story of Black Knight Hosam Fakhr
Red and White Ibrahim Farghali
The Accusation Suleiman Fayyad
A Dog Hamdy el-Gazzar
The Old Clothes Man Fathy Ghanem
A Visit Gamal al-Ghitani
Put Out Those Lights Yousef Gohar
Cairo Is a Small City Nabil Gorgy
The Girls and the Rooster Abdou Gubeir
Mother of the Destitute Yahya Hakki
The Old Man Gamil Atia Ibrahim
Across Three Beds in the Afternoon Sonallah Ibrahim
The Chair Carrier Yusuf Idris
Undoing the Spell Said al-Kafrawi
Birds' Footsteps in the Sand Edwar al-Kharrat
The Man Who Saw the Sole of His Left Foot in a Cracked Mirror Lutfi al-Khouli
A Murder Long Ago Naguib Mahfouz
The Arrival Mohamed Makhzangi
The Guard's Chair Mohamed Makhzangi
A Lover Mohamed Makhzangi
The Man with the Mustache and the Bow Tie Mohamed Makhzangi
The Son, the Father, and the Donkey Sabri Moussa
Naked He Went Off Mohamed Mustagab
The Whistle Abd al-Hakim Qasim
The Dental Crown Youssef Rakha
Another Evening at the Club Alifa Rifaat
Paradise Itself Mahmoud al-Saadani
For the Love of God Abdul Hamid Gouda al-Sahhar
The Snooper Mekkawi Said
The Lost Suitcase Abdel-Moneim Selim
The Clock Khairy Shalaby
The Man and the Farm Yusuf Sharouni
The Mother Ibrahim Shukrallah
The Country Boy Yusuf al-Sibai
Useless Cats Bahaa Taher
The House of the Spinster Sahar Tawfiq
Abu Arab Mahmoud Teymour
Thirst Mahmoud Al-Wardani
The Picture Latifa al-Zayyat

Short story writing in Egypt was still in its infancy when Denys Johnson-Davies, described by Edward Said as "the leading Arabic-English translator of our time," arrived in Cairo as a young man in the 1940s. Nevertheless, he was immediately impressed by such writing talents of the time as Mahmoud Teymour, Yahya Hakki, Yusuf Gohar, and the future Nobel literature laureate Naguib Mahfouz, and he set about translating their works for local English-language periodicals of the time.
He continued to translate over the decades, and sixty years later he brings together this remarkable overview of the work of several generations of Egypt's leading short story writers. This selection of some fifty stories represents not only a cross-section through time but also a spectrum of styles, and includes works by Teymour, Hakki, Gohar, and Mahfouz and later writers such as Mohamed El-Bisatie, Said el-Kafrawi, Bahaa Taher, and Radwa Ashour, as well as new young writers of today like Hamdy El-Gazzar, Mansoura Ez Eldin, and Youssef Rakha.

Denys Johnson-Davies has produced more than thirty volumes of translation of modern Arabic literature, including The Essential Naguib Mahfouz (AUC Press, 2011). He received the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in 2007 for Personality of the Year in the Field of Culture.