The Secret Life of Ne'ma's Kitchen Dwellers

Author Name: Shaimaa Hisham Saad

The novel's events unfold in the kitchen of a house inhabited by two successive families. The kitchen tools and appliances observe the lives of these two families, experiencing the impact of their lives and the reflections of the two homemakers' personalities on their own private lives. We learn about the tragedy of the dish rack during a kitchen overcrowding crisis, the pains of the inverted pot sharing its woes with a silent, sorrow-keeping trash can, a terrible accident that befalls the blender changing its friends' perception of it, the joys of the teacups listening to the first homemaker's conversations with her visitors and returning to recount what they heard, and the kitchen's exposure to a brutal triple aggression leading to catastrophes and chaos, among other events that happen to its dwellers or the family and reflect on them. All of this is narrated by the kitchen's scent to the child of the third family, who moves into the house after the second family leaves due to a frightening event in the kitchen. The child discovers things no one else knew, and the dwellers become involved with her in feelings that prevent them from carrying out a plan they had agreed upon after the second family's departure.