It is the late 1960s, and for the group of friends who meet night after night on a houseboat moored akong the banks of the Nile, life is not what it used to be. Nasser has ushered in an age of enormous social change; responsibility is the watchword, and there is no time for the frivolous or the absurd. In this serious world, the theory of "art for art's ske" has been usurped by the concepts of committed theater, social realism, and art with a message for the people. These middle-aged and middle-class sons and daughters of the old bougeoisie are left high and dry, to gather beneath moonlight, smoking and chatting, hoping to re-create the cozy and enchanted world they so dearly miss. Translated into English from the Arabic by Frances Liardet.

(Key Words: Naguib Mahfouz, Cairo, Egypt, Nile River, Houseboats, Nasser, Houseboats, Nobel Prize Winners, Novels, Fiction).