Kazem Is Raised Alive

About this book

On a stormy winter night of pouring rain and thunderclaps outside the walls, Kazem decides to isolate himself completely from the clamor of the outside world and the trappings of false luxury, to wage within his dim-lit room the fiercest of his existential battles: the trial of the self and the restraint of the raging forces of the soul that command evil. The novel Kazem Is Raised Alive by writer Karim Bouarqi weaves a psychological and philosophical epic of great depth and transparency. The hero plunges into interrogating memory and confronting the obsessions of human destiny; moving between memories of war and destruction, the echoes of poverty and inspiring asceticism in the life of his long-lived grandmother and her faith-filled insight, and moments of fear and apprehension embodied in his encounter with the specter of his friend Mortada. The text transcends the bounds of individual isolation to raise burning questions about the narcissism of contemporary civilization, the greed of wars, and the falsity of material possessions that screen a human being from the essence of his fitra. A soaring spiritual journey spanning a few night hours, in which pain turns into purification, will triumphs over debased appearances, reaching the dawn of a new birth in which light springs from the very heart of darkness. A contemplative literary work that touches the core of the soul, revealing how a human being can be raised to life with certitude and love after a long death in the heedlessness of matter.