Goodbye to a great writer...

Yesterday, Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz passed away. I’m not as familiar with his work as I should be, but I read Arabian Nights and Days a few years ago and loved it. I’d like to read more of his work. Looking at his obituaries and tributes to his talent, he seems like an admirable person. It takes real courage to stand up for liberal humanism is a region where advocating for such things is too often a death sentence. It takes real dignity to remain modest even after you’ve been given the Nobel Prize and hailed as the Arab world’s greatest writer. With any luck, his words and his memory will one day help to inspire a renaissance of great art and genuine freedom across the Middle East.