Zahra, a young Lebanese woman haunted by memories of abuse by her parents, enters into a loveless marriage in West Africa and then returns to a war-torn Beirut. By the author of Women of Sand and Myrrh.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Banned in several Arab nations, this rich tale mesmerizes with its frank sexuality and scenes of war-torn Beirut. Zahra is a misfit mistreated by her mother, who brings her along to secret meetings with a lover, and by her father, a harsh disciplinarian who reacts angrily to her habit of picking at her pimpled face. She leaves her parents to stay with an uncle who has fled to Africa to escape being arrested for political activity. When his affection for her grows sexual, Zahra agrees to an unsuccessful marriage with his friend Majed. Eventually, she returns to Beirut, where "the war was like a weevil that had found its way into the heart of a huge bag of white flour and settled there," and begins meeting secretly to have sex with a man who may or may not be a rooftop sniper. A rotating first-person narrative gives everyone a voice; Zahra's is the most striking, but each character has memorable moments, as when Majed describes his adolescent arousal while reading Jane Eyre and seeing an illustration of the heroine kissing Mr. Rochester. Al-Shaykh ( Women of Sand and Myrrh ), a Lebanese writer now living in London, has a focused and original style.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
With no marketing at all, al-Shaykh's short story collection, Women of Sand and Myrrh (Anchor, 1992), sold 15,000 copies. So it's no surprise that her first novel--which has been banned in several Arab countries because of its frank approach to sex and politics--is getting the red carpet treatment.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A WOMAN'S SEARCH FOR PEACE IN AN AT WAR WORLD,
This review is from: The Story of Zahra: A Novel (Paperback)
A Lebanese writer now living in London, al-Shaykh has been praised as the Arab world's leading woman novelist. Her Women of Sand and Myrrh was a breakthrough in its revelatory descriptions of Arab women's lives. The Story of Zahra has been banned in seven Arab countries because it candidly addresses of a personal and political nature. Zahra, a child of the Shia community in south Lebanon is deceived and abused by her parents. To escape, she seeks a haven with her uncle who is living as a political exile in West Africa. Regrettably, he, too, seeks to use her as "the key to making contact with my past as well as my future." Returning to Beirut to escape a loveless marriage, Zahra finds a strife torn city ablaze with civil war. There she misguidedly enters into a liaison with a sniper in the hopes of saving others. What would her life be like if the violence and gunfire would ever end? The Story of Zahra is a chillingly told story of a woman's search for peace in a world ravaged by war.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting,
By Leila Hussein (Cedar Rapids, Iowa USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Story of Zahra: A Novel (Paperback)
In response to the Lebanese reviewer who knows "everything" about being Lebanese.....this book is purely fiction! However, the author, herself being Lebanese used different aspects of Lebanese culture and society as a setting to her beautiful and saddening story. The story is set upon the horror of civil war and the breakdown of society that inevitably occurs as the war drags on. The story is not supposed to be a true story or one that you could find happened to a typical Lebanese survivor of the war. It is, however, a story about how war can destroy the very fibers of a person's life who is not a member of any warring faction. It is truly a heartbreaking story of a woman-child who struggles to hold onto her own sanity. From, Another Lebanese
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is an Amazing Book!,
By Lynn Ellingwood "The ESOL Teacher" (Webster, NY United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Story of Zahra: A Novel (Paperback)
I found this book, The Story of Zahra, amazing. I never even figured out what the end would be until I reached it. Then I had to ask, how could I be so dumb! I read this book in a matter of hours and was totally engrossed in the story. It really highlights the psychological life of a Muslim woman in Lebanon and how her behavior affects others. I disagree with the reviewer who believes that Zahra has a "psychological disorder." I think that she is a normal woman forced by convention and an oppressive life into behaviors she would never engage in if she was permitted more freedom and an ounce of respect. Zahra is never a person with self-determination but owned and controlled by others. She is eventually treated as a mere comodity.
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