Unlike the above

This novel begins in winter and ends in winter. Between the beginning and the end, chapters unfold, the secrets of which Sami Yaqoub, despite his ability to see the future, could not foresee. He had spent two months and ten days hidden in his apartment, never opening his door to anyone. But a gentle knock on his door, repeated day after day at dawn, forced him to open it. A young boy asked him to go to "Tel al-Masakhit" to take possession of his grandfather‘s forgotten orchard. Sami was astonished by the orchard‘s beauty and decided never to leave this paradise, where, beneath the intertwined trees, small houses lay hidden, their secrets known only to God. The son of Garden City, whose friendship with dogs and butterflies we witnessed in the novel "What Sami Yaqoub Saw," found himself in this novel in charge of a zoo, housing everything from camels to chickens. He gave each animal a name, understood its feelings and nature, and his kind assistant, Sim‘an Abanoub al-Asyuti, taught him how to listen to the trees. The novel embodies the unity of existence, blending the magical with the real, love with violence, and echoes of Quranic and biblical recitations and Nubian songs resonate throughout its pages. "Unlike the Past" is not merely a novel, but a testament to Egypt‘s identity and its spirit, caught between a present and a past whose conflict remains unresolved.