The stakes

Book title: The Stakes Author: Muhammad Al-Khalidi Publisher: Maskelyani Number of pages: 464 Book genre: Novel Summary of the book: The story of four friends who parted ways one summer after a loud night session, each going their own way. After a quarter of a century, they return, having grown old, to the same tavern as if they have an appointment. To tell, in succession, what they experienced of adventures and trials during their long journey across geography and within the self. To unload their memory burdened with names, cities, dates, and women. It is a journey that led them to an eternal truth: that all spiritual experiences, no matter how different, are all drawn from a single source — knowledge or wisdom first. To that, the novel is built around a central theme that the spiritual elevation is not necessarily achieved through the death of the body and suppression of desires, but also through pleasure and satisfying the senses, even if that sometimes leads to feelings of alienation and pain. As for time in this epic work, it is twofold: the time of the tavern and the time of the infinite Sufi absence. The places are also condensed into a tavern, which is the core of the city of the miner, the city of the world’s core, from which events originate and to which they ultimately return.