Black Cat Tavern

Author's name: Naguib Mahfouz

“Deep inside us lies a deep sadness that takes advantage of unfavorable opportunities to surface.”

A collection of 19 short stories, first published in 1969, two years after the June 5 defeat, and embodying the spirit of symbolism in a defeated world.

The events of "The Black Cat Tavern" revolve around a tavern where customers live with a black cat, to whom they spare no scraps of food. As the alcohol takes hold of their minds and they begin to sing, a man who is a stranger to the neighborhood and the tavern warns them: "You're happy when the morning comes upon you."

“Either memory is a deceptive liar that invents things that have no basis, or the world is changing with a force that has no mercy on memories.”

It is noteworthy that the cinema was inspired by the short story collection "The Black Cat Tavern" for the film "The Maid", directed by Ashraf Fahmy in 1984.