قيس ونيللي

Mohamed Nagy deceives us with his new novel “Qais and Nelly.” He does not narrate an emotionally stirring story as much as he presents the conditions of a world that besieges love in all its meanings and destroys the beautiful values in life. Within the novel, there is a love story between a boy and a girl, but the author only allocates them a small space amidst the tales of other characters. The melody of love that binds them seems scattered and interrupted amidst the complex realism of details. Page after page, love is stripped of its innocence and joy, suffocating under the weight of a reality governed by the elderly.

The structure of the novel is consistent with a language where metaphors dominate the real, as if the reminiscences of the elderly control reality. Nature appears to have surrendered itself to its preordained cycles without any genuine desire to act. The earth has grown tired of its customary cycles, and the wind and sun have aged, and the angels’ heads have been crowned with gray hair.