First impressions are so important. When the first paragraph of this book wasn’t even a proper sentence; and the following first chapters were both full of flourishes and poorly edited, I did not read on. The blurb sounded like an interesting story, but the beginning lost me immediately. (Rated only because it is required. I did not finish the book and cannot give a proper rating).

A sweet story, told in three timelines. Joseph is the son of a Muslim father and a Jewish mother from Cairo. Raised by his mother in America, Joseph had an affectionate but distant relationship with his father, who remained in Egypt. One day, after his father’s death, a mysterious package draws Joseph back to Cairo. There he walks the streets of his ancestors and visits the synagogue that his family has served for the last thousand years. I enjoyed the dreamlike quality of the story, as the narrative switched from Ali, the first watchman of the synagogue, to the late nineteen century, to modern times.

"The Last Watchman of Old Cairo" was a captivating read. It follows a family who are the caretakers for a temple in Cairo!

Time for some armchair traveling. This time not only geographically, but temporally, with this lovely work of historical fiction revolving (via three interconnected timelines) around a legendary Torah scroll. Back in the day when Egyptians might have been somewhat more tolerant, there was a thriving Jewish community there, eventually forced to flee the country during the foreign cleansing of 1956. There was a magnificent synagogue and watched over by generations of a Muslim family. Now the last of that watchman dynasty, an American born to a Jewish mother, a young man culturally and religiously ambivalent, to uncover the mysteries of the sacred texts. This was great, actually. I wasn't familiar with the author, merely intrigued by the plot, but now having read this, I'd be very interested to read his other book. There's something irresistible in a well researched story (albeit one with some fictional accoutrements) where the author's passion for his subject comes across so strongly, in this case via the protagonist, who in the end in his own way becomes a watchman/protector in his own right. All three narratives worked well individually and met together in a cohesive plot, the characters were well developed and engaging, the descriptions very vivid (the author has actually lived locally during the turmoil of 2000) and while it may not present a sort of place you'd want to actually visit, from the safety of your favorite reading corner it's a great trip and well worth the time. Thanks Netgalley.

This book interweaves two present stories of Joseph and two sisters, with one past story of Ali – Joseph’s ancestor.

As the story builds up, it is interesting. But as soon as it reaches its peak, it starts falling apart very fast.

Joseph is a literature student at Berkley and a son of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father. After the death of his father, he receives a scrap of paper. He doesn’t understand the meaning of the scroll. One day, on a nudge, he decides to take a semester in Cairo and to search for the scroll’s meaning.

His story collides with the British twin sisters, both widowed, and left with comfortable heritage after his father. They are on a mission to rescue sacred texts. The deeper their story gets, the more trivial it sounds.

At the same time, Joseph story is intertwined with his ancestor. Ali, a Muslim orphan, gets a job as the first watchman of the synagogue, guarding the Torah kept locked away in an ark. He doesn’t understand its meaning or secrecy. Further, he falls in love with a woman, who is out of his rank. When he meets a magician, he falls for his magic and talisman, which is supposed to connect him with the woman of his desire. At this point, the story started falling apart for me completely. Especially the magic and the talisman pushed me away from this book. I wasn’t even able to finish reading it.