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In this collection of short stories, which consists of twenty-two vibrant stories, Naguib Mahfouz returns us to the world of the neighborhood that he constructed and creatively described until it turned into a very specific narrative world, where the bullies are a symbol of oppressive power and authority, the sheikh of the neighborhood is a symbol of the loyal executive administration, and the neighborhood's people who dominate... On them. Through this world, Mahfouz depicts the transformations that society is witnessing and the immediate obstacles facing it. As we see in the story "Echo of Oblivion," where the bully "Amber" returns to God when he and his gang members become men of the mosque, but they soon return to practicing sedition in a new guise, raising the banner of religion and chanting "God is Great."