The Last Watchman of Old Cairo

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas, 270 pages.

The 2018-2019 winner of the Sophie Brody medal for outstanding work of Jewish Literature tells the story of Joseph, a graduate student whose father has recently died. Joseph's mother is Jewish and his father, Ahmed al-Raqb, is a Muslim. Thanks to  a fragment of an old document his father sends him, Joseph discovers that generations of the al-Raqb men have served as watchmen of the Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. Lukas leads us on a journey through time as we meet the first watchman, Ali ibn al-Marwani, living a thousand years ago, and then encounter members of the family again throughout the years, as they protect the Synagogue and help preserve the history and heritage of the congregation that has reputedly existed since the time of Moses. An interesting novel with a great sense of time and place and characters who illuminate the narrative and move the story along.