The Story of Zahra: A Novel [Paperback]

Hanan Al-Shaykh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1996

With more than 21,000 copies in print of  Women Of Sand And Myrrh, and more than  15,000 copies of The Story Of  Zahra, Hanan al-Shaykh is the best known and most  admired woman writer of the Arab world. The paperback  publication of Zahra will bring  this passionate and courageous novel to a much  larger group of readers. Its haunting story of a  young Lebanese woman who attempts to stem the  violence in Beirut by initiating a sexual liaison with a  sniper has "lifted the corner of a dark  curtain" (Sunday Telegraph )  from a world that fascinates us  all.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This harsh 1986 novel traces several years in the life of Zahra, who attempts to escape her brutal existence in Lebanon by visiting an uncle in South Africa. When that venture proves equally empty, she returns to war-torn Beirut in hopes of finally finding inner peace.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; 1st Anchor Books pbk. ed edition (December 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385472064
• ISBN-13: 978-0385472067
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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, April 14, 2004

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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, July 26, 2000

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!, October 26, 2005

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.