The Covenant of Damiana

Author's name: Osama Abdel Raouf El Shazly

The palm trunk to which his body was bound rose towards the heavens. A sinful man, burdened with shame, he sought neither salvation for himself nor for others. From his cross, he gazed upon the earth where he had longed to leave his mark, but his feet hung suspended in mid-air, above him a sky where he had no place, having become accursed by all—Muslims and Christians, Sunnis and Shiites, Greeks and Copts. He lived his life clothed in doubt, and today he dies with one certainty: that life is futile, not worth living, and that man in this life is but a shadow—is there any trace left of a shadow?
This novel is not merely a text recounting a critical period in Egyptian history, marked by national, sectarian, and ethnic conflict at the end of the Fatimid Caliphate, but rather a comprehensive human experience of searching for identity amidst dozens of conflicting affiliations. It is a journey exploring the concepts of identity, homeland, and belonging, and a new tale from the pages of the past that casts its shadow on the present.