He spent his childhood in Sweden and China and graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad. Like all the other children, I admire the mulberry trees in the takiya garden, the only bit of green in the whole neighborhood. Our tender hearts yearn for their dark berries. But it stands like a fortress, this takiya, circled by its garden wall. Its stern gate is broken and always, like the windows, shut.
Aloof isolation drenches the whole compound.
Our hands stretch toward this wall - reaching for the moon. Mahfouz weaves a remarkable series of tales into a short novel.