Dust Cover
In the year 1201, in the midst of the worst famine in recorded history, the adults of Egypt waged a war of extermination upon its children. Nearly every child of one of the wealthiest and militarily secure nations on earth, was hunted, captured, killed, and then eaten, by strangers, parents, and grandparents. Though the poor had nothing else to eat but their young and their dead, the wealthy engaged in child-eating—as well as the gourmet preparation of overweight people—as a culinary art. The travelling doctor, Abd al-Latif, left a detailed, yet reluctant, account of this year of grisly feasting. Forty Hands of Night is the conclusion of his story.
Notices
Copyright 2014 James LaFond
Inspired by the zombie crusader art of Jason Lenox and the writings of Abd al-Latif
Dedication
For Gerard, unforgotten
The Stage
“The children of the poor, those who were young or already grown and had no one at all to care for them or look after them, were scattered through all parts of the town, even in the narrowest side streets, like locusts in the countryside. The poor, men and women alike, lay in wait for these unhappy children, carried them off and ate them…”
“…Nothing was more common than this kind of thing, and it would be difficult to find in the length and breadth of Egypt, even among people who live cloistered in monasteries, or women who spend their lives in the zenana, anyone who has not been eye-witness to such atrocities. Moreover, everybody knows that there were grave-robbers who ate or sold the bodies they dug up.”
Abd al-Latif, Useful and instructive reflections on things that I have seen and events that I have witnessed in Egypt
Protagonists in Order of Appearance
Ibrahm, Jewish slave, boy servant of Abd al-Latif
Abd al-Latif, travelling doctor residing in Cairo Egypt
Yusuf bin Yiju, merchant, gambler, thief, and murderer
Author’s Notes
The Prologue and chapters 1-12 are adapted directly from the account of Abd al-Latif. Chapters 13-15 and the epilogue are entirely fictional and represent my attempt to explore the implications of this child holocaust through an extra-normal perspective.
Contents
Prologue: Locusts
1. The Basket
2. After Dusk
3. The Newlyweds
4. The Market
5. The Stakes
6. The Table
7. The Horseman’s Wife
8. The Quill Haji
9. Passers-by Isle
10. The Forsaken Spot
11. Rascals of Misr
12. The Harvester’s Sickle Road
13. Eyes of The Frank
14. Forty Hands of Night
15. Fruit of The Deceiver
Epilogue: I, Locust
