The Fall of the Imam

Description

“On the eve of Eid, far away, in the Imam’s eyes, they descend to the river and drink until they lose consciousness. Then they rise, their consciousness restored, repentant, seeking forgiveness. The Imam pardons them on the eve of the great Eid. The gates of prisons and detention centers open. Out emerge the dead, the radiant, the stoned, and those with severed hands and feet. And it is her turn to go to freedom, but the Imam’s eyes catch sight of her. She runs, fleeing in the darkness, pursued by all. She almost escapes before dawn, but the stab wounds her in the back. Before she falls, we ask, ‘Why do you leave the perpetrator and slaughter the victim?!’ The voices fade, her mind becomes the color of darkness, her memory black or white, devoid of letters except for the name ‘her mother’… Characters, symbols, and a memory aware of events, their letters etched within the soul… Groans and cries for help rise, proclaiming liberation from captivity to declare a painful reality, with, before, and perhaps after ‘The Fall of the Imam.’ And the novel, above all, is a reading of what lies between the lines, as Nawal El Saadawi intended through her outpouring of this The Lines.