Sugar Street - Bilingual quotes that celebrate the beauty of language, showcasing meaningful expressions in two unique perspectives.
Sugar Street - Bilingual quotes that celebrate the beauty of language, showcasing meaningful expressions in two unique perspectives.
Sugar Street is the concluding volume of the Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, which encapsulates the evolving social and political landscape of Egypt in the early to mid-20th century. The novel focuses on the lives of the al-Jawad family, exploring their personal struggles, aspirations, and the complexities of their relationships amidst the backdrop of a changing society. Mahfouz's rich characterization and detailed setting provide readers with an immersive experience of life in Cairo, where tradition intersects with modernity.
The narrative follows the next generation of the family, particularly reflecting on the characters’ ambitions and the impact of historical events on their lives. Through their stories, Mahfouz delves into themes such as identity, the clash of cultures, and the quest for personal freedom. The characters grapple with their desires and the constraints imposed by society, revealing the inner conflicts that define their existence.
Sugar Street is not just a family saga; it is a profound commentary on the broader societal changes occurring in Egypt. Mahfouz's eloquent prose elevates the personal to the universal, exploring how individual lives are influenced by historical forces. The novel ends the trilogy by emphasizing the cyclical nature of life, where change is inevitable, yet the core human experiences of love, loss, and resilience remain constant.
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The value of money is subjective, depending on age. At the age of one, one multiplies the actual sum by 145,000, making one pound seem like 145,000 pounds to a one-year-old. At seven – Bertie's age – the multiplier is 24, so that five pounds seems like 120 pounds. At the age of twenty four, five pounds is five pounds; at forty five it is divided by 5, so that it seems like one pound and one pound seems like twenty pence. {All figures courtesy of Scottish Government Advice Leaflet: Handling your Money.}
Alexander McCall Smith
Look, if you say that science will eventually prove there is no God, on that I must differ. No matter how small they take it back, to a tadpole, to an atom, there is always something they can't explain, something that created it all at the end of the search.
And no matter how far they try to go the other way – to extend life, play around with the genes, clone this, clone that, live to one hundred and fifty – at some point, life is over. And then what happens? When the life comes to an end?
I shrugged.
You see?
He leaned back. He smiled.
When you come to the end, that's where God begins.
Mitch Albom
You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on earth, people died instead of me, too. It happens every day. When lightning strikes a minute after you are gone, or an airplane crashes that you might have been on. When your colleague falls ill and you do not. We think such things are random. But there is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows. Birth and death are part of a whole.
Mitch Albom