الخبز الحافي

Shukri's first autobiographical novel, al-Khubz al-Hafi, 1935 - 1956 (For bread alone), details his difficult childhood and stirs the admiration of the reader for his efforts to overcome his circumstances. The extreme realism of Shukri's writings, reproducing the life of hunger, theft, drugs, and prostitution he experienced or observed around him, delayed the publication of his novel in Arabic for many years.