It's our last discussion for a while with John Simopoulos and again, we're  focusing on our series entitled Books That Matter. Galsworthy and Proust? Not  worthy to hold a candle to today's featured author, Mahfouz - says John. Naguib  Mahfouz was an Egyptian novelist who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature,  and is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature.  The trilogy of books - Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street - are  collectively titled the Cairo Trilogy, an immense monumental work of 1,500 pages  or so - "and every character in them is repulsive," says John, "but do read it -  if you've got the stomach for it!".