The Ways of the Lord | Turuq al-rab Shady Lewis Contemporary literary fiction The Ways of the Lord is Shady Lewis’s first novel, telling the story of eight confessions of the protagonist, Sherif, who wants to marry his German girlfriend but has to get a ‘certificate of approval’ from the Church. Through the confessions with Father Antonios, Sherif uncovers several aspects of his life story and his family’s trajectory. Although Sherif was born Orthodox, his grandfather decides to build a Catholic church in the village he grew up in, and so the family convert to Catholicism. As such, Sherif finds himself barely connected to either of the branches of Christianity he belongs to. Meanwhile, he dives into politics and gets involved with the police, only to find himself in jail, while his girlfriend flees to Germany, and their relationship takes an unexpected turn. The novel discusses political issues as much as it discusses societal and religious issues. It is Lewis’s brave attempt to depict the many flaws of Egyptian society, and what it means to rebel against this society.
Shady Lewis Shady Lewis is the author of the darkly funny On the Greenwich Meridian (2019), as well as The Ways of the Lord. He is an Egyptian psychologist residing in London. Lewis is concerned with the social construction of crowds and its relation to the everyday political sphere. He currently writes for the Lebanese independent online newspaper al-Modon.
Confessions of a penitent turn into a nightmarish journey and end in imprisonment. Publisher: al Kotob Khan Edition: 2018 Pages: 191 ISBN: 978-977-803-081-5 Rights Holder: peshady@yahoo.com
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