Quail and Autumn

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"We consider death the pinnacle of tragedy, yet the death of the living is a thousand times more terrible than the death of the dead."

Issa al-Dabbagh is a young man who belongs to a party whose role ended after the July 1952 revolution. His life becomes chaotic after he is removed from his positions as part of the "purification" movement in which the July officers got rid of the followers of the old regime.

The novel “The Quail and the Autumn” was first published in 1962 after the world of the monarchy had completely collapsed and the new July 23rd state had been established. It revolves around the shock of the sudden radical change that led to the psychological paralysis of a man lost in a whirlpool of political and emotional upheavals. So how will Issa al-Dabbagh face the world when we all know that: “If a letter of longing aspires foolishly to imagine the ability to change history.”

"We breathe corruption with the air, so how can we hope for any real hope to emerge from this swamp?"

The novel "The Quail and the Autumn" inspired a film of the same name, directed by Hossam El-Din Mustafa in 1967, starring Mahmoud Morsi and Nadia Lotfi.