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61 pages 2 hours read

Naguib Mahfouz

The Thief and the Dogs

Naguib MahfouzFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961

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Chapters 10-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 10 Summary

Nur sleeps while Said stares at the graveyard through the window and thinks about his predicament. When she wakes, Said sends her out to buy newspapers. Said stays Nur’s apartment and thinks about all the people who have betrayed him. He remembers how he first fell in love with Nabawiyya and the early days of their marriage. Sitting alone in the dark, Said wonders how long he will have to remain in hiding. He sleeps until Nur returns with food. Said reads the newspapers, in which his murder of Husayn is still a main story. Ilwan's newspaper is particularly interested in the story and mentions Said's long history of burglary and other crimes. Said feels both scared and proud; he also worries about Sana. Said cuts his photograph out of the newspaper. Afterward, he and Nur eat together. He asks her to buy him some clothes as he wishes to use the tailoring skills he learned in prison to make himself a military officer's uniform. 

Chapter 11 Summary

While watching the cemetery next to Nur's house, Said thinks about his dead father: a hard-working, pious man who introduced Said to