Basra orchards

Author's name: Mansoura Ezz El-Din

Based on a fleeting dream in the book "The Great Interpretation of Dreams," attributed to Imam Muhammad ibn Sirin, Mansoura Ezz El-Din constructs a captivating world that blends past and present, blurring the boundaries between self and other. A journey filled with questions and doubts, the protagonist, Hisham Khattab, searches for the thing in something else and traces his own self beyond it, hoping to catch a glimpse of it in everything else. Meanwhile, the author captures miniatures from the words and lives of others, through which she shapes the contours of his own life. In "Basatin Al-Basra," time blurs and distances narrow between protagonists caught in a game of mirrors that echoes the novel's maxim: "Time is a flowing river, and space is an illusion. Our true place is the home of our souls."