Khadija and Susan

Author's name: Radwa Ashour

Do we truly know love? We often give it many forms that have nothing to do with it. We imagine we love our children, our loved ones, our parents; we thus own them. Our calculations become confused if they do not show the loyalty we expect, and we resist their freedom with more repression and control, thus producing people who, without realizing it, harm themselves and those around them. In this novel, we meet Khadija and Sawsan, a mother and daughter who are the product of this false concept of love and ownership. Their lives embody the harshest forms of selfishness in humans; and everyone around them and everyone they imagined loved paid the price. A wonderful narrative and rich characters, history is never absent from Radwa Ashour's writings, and the historical events and characters are skillfully interwoven throughout the novel's events.