Tawfik al-Hakin, Maze of Justice: Diary of a County Prosecutor

Asked to name any Egyptian writer, some quick-witted lawyer might take a lucky stab at Omar Sharif, the actor who writes a contract bridge column with Charles Goren. Very few would choose Tawfik al-Hakim, an Egyptian who happened to be a lawyer, an acclaimed novelist as well as perhaps the foremost dramatist5 of the Arab world. Recently the University of Texas Press reissued his profound yet humorous novel, Maze of Justice, which describes law practice in the Nile Delta sixty years ago. The book is worthy of a writer who could portray humanity's love of freedom in a drama about a cockroach's struggle to get out of a bathtub.

Abba Eban's fnrst rate translation demonstrates the intellectual affinity of two great Semitic people, the Egyptians and the Israelis.