What is madness? It seems to be a concept as ambiguous as life and death. One can learn much about it if one looks at it from the outside. But the underlying, the essence, remains a mystery. Our protagonist now knows that he was a guest in Khanak for a while. He still remembers—even now—the past of his life, just as wise people do, and he knows his present. Nagib Mahfouz, a master of Arabic fiction and a champion of short stories, has created this collection of stories, his first attempt at writing fiction. There are twenty-eight stories in total. In these stories, he explores madness using a smooth, precise language, with hidden wisdom in his whispers. Madness of love, madness of power, madness of hunger, madness of money… pure madness. In “Whispers of Madness,” he raises many questions about justice and the nature of things. He gives value to madness, which grants its bearer freedom from all concerns.In the story “The Fraud,” it reveals the deceitful nature of the aristocratic class, as well as the madness of jealousy and competition. In “The Delirium,” the madness of love is depicted when the husband learns that his wife is cheating on him during her illness. She mentions the name of her former lover, and the medicine is stopped from being given to her, forcing her to continue lying and deliring, until she dies. The husband feels guilty and decides to commit suicide. There are also other stories about madness that are intertwined together.