The Tree of Misery - Taha Hussein

It is as if misery is a tree that strikes its roots deep into our souls, feeding on our days, sucking away our vitality and hopes, then bearing fruit of thorns and thistles that we are forced to chew, for there is no escape from our predetermined destiny. The novel you hold in your hands is the story of a wretched rural girl whom life did not treat kindly, adding pain upon pain to her lot. The man who married her did so out of compulsion, honoring his father’s will, not out of love or respect. How, for God’s sake, could anyone accept marrying a poor, ugly woman like her?! So he lives with her in hatred and resentment, and her suffering is exacerbated by the ill-treatment poured upon her by her mother-in-law all the time. Then she gives birth to daughters who are no better off than their mother, for they inherited her misery, finding no rest except in the embrace of a grave.