نساء البساتين

After five years away, the narrator returns to Tunisia and stays for ten days with his married brother in al-Basatin, a district of Tunis he knows well. Through his brother, his sister-in-law Yusra, her sister Leila, a friend and Naima, a neighbour in the same building, he observes a modest family managing its daily life, in a world where women have a strong presence. Leila believes a woman is free to do as she likes and is judged for it; Naima takes refuge in outward piety. Told in the first person like a holiday diary, the novel moves through flats, cafés and streets to show a Tunisian society swinging between heavy religious tradition and a confusing modernity, with its false liberation, false piety and police corruption.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

207 pages in the original

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Tunisia

First published

2010 by Dar al-Adab

Author's age

59 when first published

ISBN

9789953891613 (original)

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Wikidata