الوصايا

On a Wednesday in December 1978, Sheikh Abd al-Rahman Salim calls in his grandson and tells him he will die on Friday. With a single day left to reveal what he has hidden for some seventy years, he passes on his experience as ten commandments, from finding deliverance in hardship to letting go. Each chapter sets out one commandment and tells part of the story of the Salim house, from the 1920s through the monarchy, the 1952 revolution, Nasser, the 1967 defeat, Sadat and the October War. There is Khadija, the sheikh's wife, convinced the house is haunted; their sons Abdallah, who works the land, Salih, who studies religion and becomes an imam abroad, and Naim, a teacher sent to the front; and the grandson, whom the sheikh calls the boy who failed.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family, Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Egypt, 1920s–1970s

First published

2018 by Kotob Khan

Author's age

59 when first published

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