For those familiar with Mahfouz’s work, “Half a Day” might seem like an anomaly at first glance. Unlike his best-known novels, including Midaq Alley and the Cairo Trilogy, “Half a Day” can’t be read as a literal account of daily life in 20th-century Cairo. This isn’t to say that many of the details in the story aren’t realistic; in fact, the work’s matter-of-fact descriptions of details such as the boy’s clothing, the school’s appearance and the school curriculum are all characteristic of literary realism. However, the rapid aging the narrator experiences over the course of just half a day places the story firmly within the genre of allegory.

In this sense, “Half a Day” functions on several different levels. The most straightforward interpretation of its symbolism is as an exploration of how humans experience time; we often perceive our already short lifespans as passing even more quickly than they actually do, particularly when (as in Mahfouz’s story) we’re preoccupied with day-to-day concerns. On the flip side, relatively brief periods of time can seem to stretch out when there are many things happening, or when what’s happening holds particular personal significance.