The third and final volume of Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy, following Palace Walk and Palace of Desire. Sugar Street (Al-Sukkariyya) is a real alley in the Khan el-Khalili district, and Mahfouz used the trilogy to map three generations of a Cairo family against the backdrop of Egyptian history from 1917 to 1952.
By the time you reach Sugar Street, the patriarch is old and Cairo has changed around him. The novel deals with the generation that came of age under British occupation and grew into the politics of nationalism and Marxism. Read the trilogy in order — starting with Palace Walk — and Cairo's old quarter will feel like somewhere you already know.