After twenty years of work, Salem ends his service in the police cavalry and returns to his home and family in Deir al-Qarn, bringing with him the only companion that has remained with him all these years: his horse. Family members have different feelings towards this guest, who will now become part of the family. The chains of storytelling revolve between the five children and the mother, and as they revolve, they weave stories and build worlds. In this novel, Mamdouh Azzam writes, in a new and different style from his previous novels, a story about a simple family that lives its tranquility and fear, its surrender and rejection, its peace and its conflicts, to stir within us endless questions and contemplations, while freedom, in its broad meaning, writes the final chapter.
The book was published in cooperation with Ettijahat Foundation - Independent Culture.
It includes the book presented to him by the Syrian political science researcher Salam Al-Kawakibi, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the “Ettijahat” Foundation. Independent Culture,” on 253 pages, and contains three papers, the first of which deals with: “Cultural Mechanisms and Cultural Production in a Period of Crisis.” Syria, Iraq and Lebanon,” prepared by academic researcher Dr. Mary Elias. The second research deals with: “The role of culture and arts in achieving reconciliation and civil peace in countries that witnessed violent conflicts,” completed by researcher Rama Najma. While the third research, which was completed by the “Syrian Center for Policy Research,” touched on “developing cultural structures in Syria.”
After Martin Luther King was assassinated, Ray was able to escape with a fake passport, and as he moved from one country to another, he kept reading the newspapers, delighted to see his name on the list of the FBI's "ten most dangerous criminals." His journey finally lands him in Lisbon, where he spends ten days waiting for a visa to enter Angola. But Lisbon was also the city that inspired Antonio Muñoz Molina, his most famous novel, and when he now decided to write a novel about Ray, the city became witness to three alternating stories: a murderous man on the run from justice, a writer struggling to find his literary voice, and the writer himself. Thirty years later, he reflects on his life, the life of his hero, and the form of the novel in which he tries to imagine the world with the consciousness of another man.
In As a Shadow Departs, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2018, Molina writes a captivating, powerful, and detailed novel, integrating the fictional event with how it is written about.
Between the covers of this novel is a love story in a time of war that has no time or place.
But it is the product of humanity's struggle since time immemorial, a struggle between good and evil, human greed, and a love that settled between two hearts that refused to die even after their separation.
