Manushka

About this book

At a decisive moment between life and death, and from the hospital bed where heirs lurk to divide the inheritance, "Hazem" - the sixty-year-old son - decides not to die as they desire. It was no rebellion against fate as much as a response to a mysterious call that came to him in a brief doze; a message written in clear Arabic on a sign in a dream, inviting him to depart in search of "the herb of life." Thus begins the novel "Manushka," with a great escape journey from family constraints, children's ingratitude, and doctors' expectations, toward the Far East.. where Malaysia's dense forests hide secrets transcending reality's bounds. There, and in the plane's crowd, he meets "Manushka," the Italian history professor who herself carries a scientific bewilderment and a conscience searching for truth amid fake ruins' rubble. Between Kuala Lumpur's alleys, Buddhist temples' calm, and the depths of caves formed millions of years ago, the two heroes undergo a double journey; a journey in earth's geography to discover forgotten civilizations and stolen identities, and a journey in the psyche's geography to test the concepts of love, loyalty, marriage, and religion. Events escalate when Hazem finds himself an imam in a remote village, people weeping at his recitation without understanding his language, and experiencing a human purity unknown in din cities. "Manushka" is no mere travel novel, but a scream in the face of historical falsification, and a philosophical contemplation on existence's purpose, asking bitterly: is certainty in life or in death? In the body or in the soul? It is the story of searching for meaning when everyone thinks the tale has ended.