Beginning and End - Naguib Mahfouz

"How our hopes mock us..."

A simple family faces the sudden death of the father and the hardship of living during World War II due to the delay in receiving his pension. Nafisa works as a seamstress, Hassan turns to thuggery and drugs, and Hussein gives up his right to higher education to give his younger brother Hassanein the opportunity to join the military college. This is the beginning, so how will the end be?

The novel "Beginning and End" was first published in 1951, and our story is summarized by its title, "Beginning and End," and Naguib Mahfouz reminds us during it that: "The drowning man's desperate attempt to survive is like the wretched man's dreams of happiness; both are lost wishes."

"Those who surrender to fate encourage it to persist in its tyranny."

Cinema was inspired by the novel “The Beginning and the End” to make a film of the same name directed by Salah Abu Seif in 1960, starring Omar Sharif and Sanaa Gamil. It was the first novel by Naguib Mahfouz to be adapted into a film. Mexican cinema was also inspired by it to make a film of the same name, directed by Arturo Ripstein in 1993.