Draft:Land of Zicola

Land of Zikola is a novel written by the Egyptian writer Amr Abdel Hamid. It was published as a first edition in 2010 and was reissued by Aseer Al-Kotoub for Publishing and Distribution in 2015.

The novel ranked second on the bestseller list in 2016 after God's Land novel at Kitabiko Bookstore and Aseer Al-Kotoub. It is a fantasy novel whose hero is a young man from the village of Al-Baho Fariq who finds himself one day in a land that does not deal with money like other humans, instead, they deal with units of intelligence. Every work for money in our land is equivalent to a certain value of units of intelligence.

Zicola Lows

 * It is a land whose people deal in units of intelligence. You won't charge for your work in cash, rather, your units of intelligence increase and they decrease if you buy something.
 * The poor is someone who does not have many units of intelligence.
 * Every year, Zicola Land celebrates what is called Zicola Day, in which the poorest person is slain. The poorest citizens are gathered, and Zicola doctors choose three of them who are the sickest (poorest) to be subjected to a game called the Zicola game. In this game, each one of the three chosen citizen shoots at certain areas they specified before over small sculptures of themself sculpted after they had been chosen, and whoever aimed the smallest areas would be slaughtered.
 * No one can leave the Zicola on normal days except on Zicola day when the doors are opened to leave.
 * When you leave Zicola, the law of intelligence units no longer applies to you.
 * When a male child is born to the king, Zicola Day is held.

Novel Summary
Khaled, the novel hero, is a 28-year-old young man from the village of Al-Baho Fariq. He proposed to his lover eight times and was rejected each time by her father who made excuses that he wanted an unusual young man for his daughter. Khaled tries to embark on an adventure through which he can achieve something that satisfies his lover's father and be the extraordinary man he wants. He decides to take a trip to Furik's basement located in the village. There are many rumors and facts about this basement, including that it was the last place that Khaled's parents visited. So, he returns to his grandfather who summons his friend and gives Khaled an old book to someone who had previously visited the basement, but that book is incomplete. Khaled enters the basement on a moonlit night, and after a long walk, it collapses. After he survives, he finds himself in a barren desert and there are two people who guide him to a nearby city. This was the Land of Zicola and it was celebrating its special day, Zicola Day. Khaled enters the city and meets Yamen and his friend Iyad, they tell him about the laws of Zicola, how people deal with units of intelligence instead of money, and how the poorest (stupidest) people in the city slay on Zicola Day when they are chosen by Zicola game. When he decides to leave, they tell him that the door through which he came has been closed and won't be opened until next year, on the day of the celebration. After that, Khaled meets Dr. Aseel, she helps him in the rest of his journey in searching for a book known as the most expensive book that has been sold in the land of Zicola, which talks about an illusion called a Forek basement. This book was owned by a person who came to the city twenty years ago. Later, Khaled knew that the book author was his father, so he began working with his friend Yamen to gain more units of intelligence required to buy the book and also to search for the author of the book along with Aseel until he eventually discovered that the owner of the book was his brother, who got it after he killed his father in order to inherit it.

The book is worth a lot of intelligence units especially since Khaled's brother was so greedy and manipulator. In the book there was a riddle that Khaled could not solve, so, he asked for help from Dr. Aseel who possesses a fortune in intelligence units. He found the basement door on the way back home, but it was located outside the wall of Zicola, not within it. So, he planned to dig an underground path in one of the nearest houses to the Zicola wall, and he will give 200 intelligence units to the servant who guarded this house and 300 units to the workers in condition to complete their work in 20 days, while in meantime he will continue to work to recover his units to avoid being poor. Khaled's plan did not go well, the king's son was born after 7 months only, and Khaled was arrested as he became one of the poorest people in Zicola. After being examined by Dr. Aseel, Khaled was one of the three poorest people in Zicola and was subjected to the Zicola game which unfortunately he did not succeed in, and sentenced to death. However, Khaled did not die and they announced his pardon as he became rich, as Dr. Aseel gave him lots of intelligence units behind his back because she loved him and did not want him to die. Dr. Aseel was condemned as a traitor and she escaped from the Land of Zicola, while Khaled reached to tunnel that leads to Furik's basement with help from his friends and got way back to his home.

Nover Characters

 * Khaled Hosni: a fresh graduate young man who proposed to his lover Mona many times and was rejected each time by her father by the excuse that he wants a special man for his daughter. He insists on marrying Mona whatever it takes, so, he goes on an adventure through Furik's basement to the Land of Zicola to prove to himself and Mona's father that he is an extraordinary man, however, his adventure is full of challenges and dangers.
 * Aseel: Zicola's first doctor. She met Khaled accidentally when she hit him with her cariole. She falls in love with him especially after he saves a child from drowning.
 * Yamen: a young zicolian and a friend of Khaled. He helped him to know Zicola, its roles, and people and assisted him in getting a job to collect intelligence units so he could get back home.
 * Iyad: Yamen's close friend and he assisted Khaled in his journey to find his way back home to Al-Baho Fariq village.
 * Abdo: Khaled's grandfather who raised him after his parents passed away and he is the one who told him about Furik's basement.
 * Mona: Khaled's lover who is fighting to marry her, but he faces his father who rejects him repeatedly.

Also read

 * Amr Abdel Hamid
 * Body's memory
 * God's Land
 * Valley of the Forgotten Wolves