A visionary novel of sacred friendship across centuries, cultures, and empires.

A mosque. A memory. A map between centuries.

In 20th-century Alexandria, a half-blind Italian architect sits quietly in the courtyard of a mosque he once built—listening not for the call to prayer, but for the voice of a man who died 700 years ago.

Mario and Abu L-Abbas is a sweeping translated Arabic historical novel of spiritual defiance, secret love, and impossible friendships across time. Woven through the ruins of Andalusia and the rise of Cairo, it traces the mystical bond between a modern architect and Abu l-Abbas al-Mursi, the Andalusian Sufi who fled the Christian conquest and reshaped the spiritual life of medieval Egypt.

As a young writer stumbles into the story through a chance encounter on a plane, she finds herself drawn into a tale where truth blurs with vision, and history becomes intimate.

Written by Reem Bassiouney, one of the Arab world’s most compelling novelists, and translated by renowned scholar Roger Allen, this is a deeply moving translated Arabic historical novel about exile, devotion, and the lives we inherit—sometimes from those we’ve never met.