Maze of Justice

Who shot Kamar al-Dawla Alwan? Was it a crime of passion? What was the role of the beautiful peasant girl Rim? And is the mysterious Sheikh Asfur as crazy as he seems?

Maze of Justice is an Egyptian comedy of errors by one of the foremost Arab writers of this century. Partly autobiographical, it is written in the form of a diary by a young public prosecutor assigned to a village in rural Egypt. Imbued with the ideals of a European education, he encounters a world of poverty and backwardness where an imported legal system is both alien and incomprehensible. He also encounters the red tape, political intrigue and bungling incompetence of state official.

First published in Arabic in 1937, skillfully translated a decade later by Abba Eban, and subsequently turned into a film by the Egyptian director Tawfik Saleh, Maze of Justice has lost none of its social relevance or comic sparkle.