Ashraf al-Khamaisi – ‘Sharp Turn’

From the International Prize for Arabic Fiction official biography and book description:

Ashraf al-Khamaisi is an Egyptian short story writer and novelist, born in Luxor, Egypt, in 1967. He works as an editor for Al-Thaqafa Al-Jadida magazine. His story The Four Wheels of the Hand-Pushed Cart won first prize in a short story competition for writers from all over the Arab world, organised by the newspaper Akhbar al-Adab. He has published three short story collections and two novels: The Idol (1999) and God’s Land of Exile (2013), which was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2014.

Sharp Turn explores questions of life, death, and faith, in a story about a group of passengers who are mysteriously brought together to travel on a speeding minibus. One of the passengers is the prophet Sonallah, a man who has been roaming the planet for thousands of years trying to spread his message. As the group hurtles along the highway towards an almost certain death, Sonallah tries to convince them of his truth – that humanity should strive for immortality in order to rightly represent God.