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بين القصرين هو الجزء الأول من ثلاثية نجيب محفوظ الشهيرة، والتي تشكل القاهرة ومنطقة الحسين خصيصا المسرح الأساسي والوحيد لأحداثها.[1][2][3] تحكي الرواية قصة أسرة من الطبقة الوسطى، تعيش في حي شعبي من أحياء القاهرة في فترة ما قبل وأثناء ثورة 1919. يحكمها أب متزمت ذو شخصية قوية هو السيد أحمد عبد الجواد (سي السيد). ويعيش في كنف الأب كل من: زوجته أمينة وإبنه البكر ياسين وإبنه فهمي وكمال إضافة إلى ابنتيه خديجة وعائشة.
المصدر: ويكيبيديا

It isn't my concious intention to read trilogies, but here I am. Happily, I guess, this first novel is about 40% of the whole. It is an interesting and moving Cairo family epic beginning about the time of WWI (The family wishes that the English will be confounded by the Zeppelin.). ( )

If you want to read about a family made entirely of people whom you are given no reason to like or even find interesting, this is your book. You may learn something about Egypt in the years 1918 and 1919, but even that is presented through a family only one member of whom is interested in anything outside themselves or their household and that one is never followed into his political activities. ( )

Wow, wow, wow is this book fantastic. It's a substantial book, and the first of a trilogy by a Nobel Prize-winning author and it certainly has the reputation as An Important Book, which put me off reading it despite having picked up a very nice copy over a decade ago. This book seemed like it would require effort and somehow I was never up for making the effort. And so when I finally pulled it down off of the shelf, I was astonished at how vibrant and fun this novel was, one of those rare novels where time disappeared while I was reading.

Set in Cairo, in the years before Egyptian independence from Britain, the novel centers on al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad and his family. In public, Sayyid is the life of the party, a fun-loving and generous man who loves nothing more than gathering with his friends, drinking and singing, and sleeping with a series of mistresses. At home, however, he is intent on having a strictly observant religious household, the women who stay home and never show their faces to anyone outside the family, and sons who obey his every order and remain free of all vice. At home, his genial personality transforms into one that is quick to rage. Each family member reacts differently to their circumstances and the novel concerns itself with domestic issues and the crises that pop up in ordinary life, until the dissatisfaction with being an occupied country is expressed in demonstrations and rebellion and the family has to adjust to these new circumstances.

Mahfouz writes so engagingly about ordinary life of a shopkeeper's family that it's impossible not to be drawn into their lives. He's clear about the restrictions placed on women and how onerous and damaging that is, while also showing how a rigid, patriarchal society harms everyone in it, even the ones in charge. He also goes into detail about what life was like in that time and place, in a way that makes me eager to jump into the second book of the trilogy. ( )