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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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THE LAST WATCHMAN OF OLD CAIRO

Michael David Lukas

A spellbinding journey from California to Cairo to unravel centuries-old family secrets, this novel explores fathers and sons, and the power of the stories we inherit, from the author of the award-winning bestseller The Oracle of Stamboul
Joseph, a literature student at Berkeley, is the son of a Jewish mother and an Egyptian father. When a mysterious package arrives, it pulls him into a mesmerizing adventure to uncover the secrets that bind the men in his family.

For generations, fathers have passed to their sons the guardianship of the storied Ben Ezra Synagogue, built at the site where the infant Moses was taken from the Nile. Joseph learns of his ancestor, Ali, the Muslim boy who, a millennia ago, was entrusted as the first watchman and was enchanted by the synagogue's legendary--perhaps magical--Ezra Scroll. The story of Joseph's family is entwined with that of the twin sisters Agnes and Margaret, who in 1897 depart their hallowed Cambridge halls on a mission to rescue sacred texts that have begun to disappear from the synagogue.

The Forty-Third Name of God is a deeply felt, page-turner of a novel from an acclaimed storyteller. This tightly woven multigenerational tale illuminates the tensions that have split communities, and the unlikely forces--potent magic, forbidden love--that boldly attempt to cross them.

MICHAEL DAVID LUKAS is the author of the National Bestselling novel The Oracle of Stamboul, which was a finalist for the California Book Award, the NCIBA Book of the Year Award, and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, and has been published in fifteen languages. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey, a student abroad in Cairo, a night-shift proofreader in Tel Aviv, and a waiter at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont. A graduate of Brown University, he received scholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Oakland, California.
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Book

Published 2018-03-13 by Spiegel & Grau

Book

Published 2018-03-13 by Spiegel & Grau

Comments

Of the many novels set in Egypt, few if any have understood how Cairo's place at the crossroads of many religions has broken communities' and families' hearts through the centuries. This novel explores the center of Cairo's oldest places through the story of one family and their search for a mysterious artifact, and for closure.

Brilliant.Lukas's writing explodes with imaginative force and splendor [and he] demonstrates in this novel his sublime ability to enchant us with unforgettable characters and moving stories that linger with us long after we have finished his magical book.

Michael David Lukas has given us an elegiac novel of Cairo Old Cairo and modern Cairo, with a bit of Berkeley thrown in. His prose is deeply evocative, and a sense of mystery and profound tristesse pervades this unusual narrative, which tells the story of a young California man on a quest to understand a puzzling gift left for him by his late father, the descendant of generations of watchmen at the venerable Ben Ezra synagogue in the depths of Old Cairo. The novel is enhanced by Lukas' impressive historical research on the Geniza and the colorful characters involved in rescuing its treasure trove of documents. But his greatest flair is in capturing the essence of that beautiful, haunted, shabby, beleaguered yet still utterly sublime Middle Eastern city.

[A] romantic gem. Lukas's desert outing soars thanks to its themes of inclusion and forgiveness. Deceptively brief, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo charms with its cast of misfits and lost souls who find their way with the dream of the Ezra Scroll to guide them.

A beautiful, richly-textured novel. Ambitious and delicately crafted, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is a both a coming of age story and a family history, a wide-ranging book about fathers and sons, religion, magic, love, and the essence of storytelling. A joy.

THE LAST WATCHMAN OF OLD CAIRO is the Winner of the 2018 National Jewish Book Award in Fiction Read more...

Fascinating...Blending his fictional creations with real characters...Lukas creates a thoroughly credible mystery [and] an appealing family drama.

Part mystery, part character study, yet historically accurate, this book should appeal to a broad swath of readers.

Wonderfully rich. Both met and repressed desires - sensual and intellectual, compassionate and proprietary - create the novel's driving force. The deep pleasures of this novel come from the interconnecting narratives and how they inform one another [with] a mingling of history and imagination and mystery.

THE LAST WATCHMAN OF OLD CAIRO is the Winner of the American Library Association's 2019 Sophie Brody Award for Achievement in Jewish Literature! Read more...

Lukas writes marvelously about Old Cairo, a city he cherishes.The Last Watchman of Old Cairo delivers in polyphonic textures a timeless yet contemporary story set in ancient and modern Cairo and Berkeley.

Longlisted for the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Prize

Evocative.Lukas turns the Egyptian city into a tantalizingly seductive place of mystery.

THE LAST WATCHMAN OF OLD CAIRO is Named a Top Ten Book of 2018 by the BBC A Penguin Random House International One World, One Book Pick Featured in The Millions's Most Anticipated Books of 2018

Weaving together characters from medieval Cairo, Victorian Britain, and contemporary Berkeley, Michael David Lukas has crafted a rich, highly readable story. His themes - the ties between generations, between the West and Egypt, and between Jews and Muslims - are bittersweet and timely. His plot is beautifully paced, and his characters break your heart, even when they have to reach across the generations to do so.

Lukas' lyrical novel draws readers into a classic tale of family secrets, forbidden love, and religious rivalry that spans generations. Parallel stories.intersect at a crucial juncture as family legends unfurl, coalesce, and enlighten.

Lyrical, compassionate, and illuminating.

I just finished a wonderful novel by Michael David Lukas, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo..I read the first few pages and I was hooked.

Captivating.Lukas' warmly affecting sophomore work largely examines what happens to all that life, its memories and stories, when the people experiencing it are gone.Novels like Lukas' can believe in the potential of another version of the world, whether we call it possible or magical or both.

Italy: Longanesi ; France: Mercure de France ; Spanish: Edhasa