Floating in a haze of hashish and cynicism, can a lost generation hide from the changing tides of history forever?

In Adrift on the Nile (ثرثرة فوق النيل), Naguib Mahfouz paints a piercing portrait of the late 1960s, a time of enormous social upheaval under Nasser. While the country transforms, a group of middle-aged friends—the sons and daughters of the old bourgeoisie—retreat to a houseboat on the Nile. Left high and dry by the revolution, they gather nightly beneath the moonlight to smoke, chat, and inhabit a cozy, enchanted world of escapism. But their floating sanctuary is fragile, and one night, art and reality collide with unforeseen consequences. Thrilling and deeply serious, this novel exposes the human and artistic dilemmas of modern times, questioning the price of indifference in a society demanding change.