After losing hope of proving the existence of the Sumakiat Library, which disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the early 1960s, one of her books appears almost out of nowhere, more than twenty kilometers away from its location and disappearance: the complete book “Al-Shawqiyyat,” and on its inner page is written “Sammaqiyat Library.” ", and a serial number was entered.
This book revives Tawfiq Al-Khadra's hope in proving the existence of the library, which has actually become an imaginary library that never existed, because everyone denied its existence in the first place. He searches for the rest of the books, traces how they reached the people he found them with, and little by little the facts of what happened on that distant day in which the library disappeared and Faris Abu Lawz was killed are revealed to him.
In a time when speech has no value, Younes decided to remain silent.
What is the benefit of what he says when he is weak, strange, and free from the constraints of twenty-six years that he spent in a world of fear, loneliness, and near death?!!
Wherever he went and wherever he moved, he was pursued by curses and oppression. Even his attempts to search for a part of his precious past with his wife and son were useless...!
In his relationship with “Abu Al-Rish,” he felt some reassurance from all the alienation that nestled in his heart, but that was not enough for him to find stability and end his torment and loneliness!!
The new circumstances of the country, and the changes in the government, increase his flight and confusion, despite his attachment to all the good people who surrounded him during his ordeal.
“Younes” who longed for everything... nothing saved him!!
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.
During the unity between Syria and Egypt, the people of a small village in southern Syria submit a request to the region’s directorate about their desire to establish a public library. This request raises the astonishment of the authorities, as how can a village where most of its people have left due to drought, famine, and the approaching famine want paper instead of paper? the bread?!
With a circular narrative that begins with the submission of a purchase order and ends with the bookstore’s mysterious disappearance, the stories reproduce one after another, creating the novel’s grand narrative: the story of the desire for knowledge and imagination.
A unique friendship brought together Abed, Hamed, and Khaled, but the war tampered with this friendship and shattered it.
The narrator recalls the life history of these three, using those close to them, to fill in the gaps in the story, and to discover the secret of the mysterious prophecy made by Abed, in which he said that he would die near the honey rocks after six years and two months.
In poetic language, Mamdouh Azzam writes about death, friendship, and love, and about the bitterness of grudges that grow and grow in the mud of vile wars. And about war and the impact it leaves behind on people's souls.
