Al-Salafi (The Salafist), by: Ammar Ali Hassan, Cairo: Al-Dar Al-Arabiya lel-Ketab, 300pp. 2014.

The latest novel by author Ammar Ali Hassan – who is also an expert on Islamist political trends -- merges between the magical prophecy of a Sufi woman living in the Egyptian countryside and the growing influence of the radical religious currents that began to impose their values on Egyptian life in the past few decades.

Al-Salafi (The Salafist) presents the suffering of a lawyer who raises his son on progressive and contemporary ideas until a group of Islamists convince him to accompany them to Afghanistan in holy war against the Russians.

The Salafist is the sixth novel by Ammar Ali Hassan, who has also authored numerous books on political Islamism. He is the winner of a number of awards, including the State Excellence Award for social sciences, and the Tayeb Saleh Award for short stories.