Has Egypt's Nobel laureate lost his appeal among country's youth?

CAIRO — Over a period of 12 years, 650,000 copies of Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz’s books have been sold — a figure that has spurred a heated debate whether this signifies a commercial success or a failure to promote the country’s Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, particularly among the youth.

According to Dar El-Shorouk, the publishing house that owns the exclusive publishing rights to Mahfouz’s works in Arabic, the number of books sold is a success. The publisher said in a March 15 statement that the works of Mahfouz have been published “in unprecedented numbers” and “in several editions for each book.”