‫أوراق شمعون المصري‬

In this contemplative historical novel by Egyptian writer Osama Abdel Raouf El-Shazly, an old man named Shimon bin Zakhari — known as Shimon the Egyptian — sets down the memoirs of his extraordinary life so that later generations might learn from them. Born to a devout Hebrew father, Zakhari, and an Egyptian mother, Romana, Shimon embodies the meeting of two cultures, and he carries that dual inheritance out of Egypt as a child during the Exodus.

Framed around the years of wandering in the wilderness of Sinai — from the departure from Egypt in the time of the prophet Moses to Moses's death — the narrative follows Shimon as the physical journey through the desert becomes a deeper, spiritual one. Through his eyes we witness faith and doubt, belonging and estrangement, and the long search for an authentic relationship with God.

Reflective and richly imagined, Awraq Shamoun al-Masri argues that the truest "wilderness" is not geographic but spiritual, and that genuine knowledge of the divine is earned not through lineage or inherited creed but through an honest, personal journey.