A village lost in oblivion, shaken by a mysterious explosion and an unknown object.
In 1977, it suddenly turns into a tightly sealed box where every villager lives their own epic story.
Oppressed rebels demand freedom,
while tyrannical rulers tighten their grip on souls and necks.
But the narrative thread only advances to take us back, as the novel sheds light on a harsh decade stretching from the June 1967 setback to the moment of the explosion and the villagers' faces turning into turtles.
One Event in the Village is narrated by eight different characters, whose stories form a fascinating mosaic. The novel is a narrative questioning of the defeat and the subsequent illusions of sovereignty and victory. Who writes true history: boots, guns, and iron chains, or the undying cries of rebellion? And what does the year 1977 represent for us: the death of meaning and art, or the futility of fate and false peace? Isn't the village of Al-Manasi a metaphor for the generation of the deformed?
Whatever the answer, Prayer of Anxiety brings together the scattered threads of meaning and the strength of the plot.
