Synopses & Reviews
The Arab Women Writers series presents the best of contemporary fiction from the Middle East; its Series Editor Dr. Fabia Faqir was awarded the Women in Publishing 1995 New Venture Award.
Seen through the eyes of a nine-year old girl, Huda, this novel beautifully captures the atmosphere of Baghdad in the 1940s. A city of public steam baths, of roadside butchers, of spinning tops and childhood games played in the streets, streets where political demonstrations are beginning to take place.
With strikingly inventive use of language, Alia Mamdouh plays out relationships of apparent strength and actual love in a novel that charms and beguiles, even while it kicks and fights its way to its shocking conclusion.