The covenant of Damiana

The palm trunk rose that was tied to his body towards the sky. A sinful human burdened with shame, not seeking salvation for himself or others. He gazes from above his cross to a land he wished to see the footprints of his feet on, but his feet are suspended in the air, and he is beneath a sky where he has no place, after he became cursed by everyone—Muslims, Christians, Sunnis, Shia, Romans, and Copts. He lived his life wearing a garment of doubt, and today he dies with one certainty: that life is absurd and not worth living, and man in this life is like a shadow’s illusion—so is there any trace of an illusion? This novel is not just a text narrating a critical period in Egypt’s history, marked by national, sectarian, and racial conflict at the end of the Fatimid state, but a comprehensive human experience searching for identity among dozens of affiliations that divide us. A new journey by writer Osama Abdul-Raouf Al-Shazly about concepts of identity, homeland, and belonging, and a new story from pages of the past casting its shadows on the present. Book information Year of publication: 2023 Author’s name: Osama Al-Shazly Publisher: Al-Riwaq for Publishing and Distribution Number of pages: 400 To request other books by Osama Al-Shazly: Dham Damiya, Shimon the Egyptian’s Papers