In a remote community on the edge of a windswept desert, a woman has been condemned to death by stoning. Steeped in the harsh values of her traditional, patriarchal society, Noor accepts her fate. When an aid worker befriends her, urging her to defend herself and her unborn child, the two women form a bond. Together with Amina, Noor’s outspoken friend, they struggle to defy the law. Written in prose imbued with the rhythms and images of the author’s native language, Arabic, this is a tale of the bonds of female friendships, solidarity and empowerment in a society where a woman’s voice, especially in the public sphere, has been denied.
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Reviews
Vénus-Khoury-Ghata's spare, unflinching prose leads the reader to very heart of violence, to the essence of the unending struggle between liberty and submission, between social traditions and the freedom to love as one chooses.
Musical and poetic, a powerful voice touched with grace.
How to give when you can no longer receive? How much should an outsider seek to disrupt? Who should cast the first stone? Vénus Khoury-Ghata gives her answers to these questions with all the elegance, lightness and empathy we have come to expect of her.
A novel born of rage.
Vénus Khoury-Ghata's love for language runs as deep as her hatred of injustice and cowardice.