Deferred Payment

About this book

In life there are debts that records cannot count and paper money cannot settle: debts whose contracts fate signs in a moment of recklessness, or in the rush of a love that turned to hatred, leaving us to live long years under the weight of compound interest. Deferred Payment is not merely a novel about a passing gamble in a casino, or a losing deal in which reckless tycoons wager their fortunes for a thrill; it is a deep meditation on the nature of what we truly lose when we think we have won. The novel asks calmly and harshly: can a fortune compensate for the absence of loved ones? Can a lavish chair make one forget the warmth of a family whose walls collapsed before a storm of betrayal? And does the awaited revenge, for which we prepare with burning intelligence, truly grant us peace, or does it strip us of our humanity piece by piece? The lives of Asser, the heir saturated with loneliness who breathes the dust of memories and the scent of loss, intersect with those of Akram, the man who climbed the ladder of ambition on the ropes of illusion, finding themselves on opposite ends of an existential equation. One seeks an exit from the cage of his past; the other tries to cling to a future dissolving between his hands. Between lavish mansions hiding unforgivable secrets within their walls, and popular alleys bustling with the struggles of survival, both proceed on a journey of deferred payment, unaware that the true price may be far dearer than what they wagered. It is the tale of endings that come far too late, and of beginnings born from the womb of rubble.