"The Cairo Trilogy," by Naguib Mahfouz (Knopf Doubleday, 1,360 pp.)
It's hard to overstate the rich pleasures found in this trilogy consisting of three separate books – "Palace Walk," "Palace of Desire," and "Sugar Street" – by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz. Tracing three generations of a Muslim family living in Cairo during Britain’s occupation of Egypt in the early 20th century, Mahfouz offers both a masterly epic tale and an insightful portrait of his country.