Love in the Kingdom of Oil
By (Author) Nawal El Saadawi
Saqi Books
Saqi Books
3rd July 2019
2nd edition
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Fiction in translation
892.736
Paperback
160
Width 140mm, Height 203mm, Spine 19mm
156g
A woman disappears without trace. Nobody, including the police commissioner investigating the case, can understand how a woman could simply walk away, leaving husband and home behind. After all, in the Kingdom of Oil where His Majesty reigns supreme, no woman has ever dared disobey the command of men. When the woman finally reappears, there is a blurring between the men in her life, as she leaves one to join another, then returns to her first husband who has since taken a new wife. She is trapped in a man-made web, unable to escape from a male figure who continually fills urns that she must carry. Surreal and satirical, Love in the Kingdom of Oil is a startling reflection on the limits of female freedom in a patriarchal society.
'At a time when nobody else was talking, (El Saadawi) spoke the unspeakable.' Margaret Atwood
Nawal El Saadawi (1931-2021) was an internationally renowned feminist writer and activist from Egypt. She founded and became president of the Arab Women's Solidarity Association and co-founded the Arab Association for Human Rights. Among her numerous roles in public office she served as Egypt's National Director of Public Health and stood as a candidate in the 2004 Egyptian presidential elections. El Saadawi held honorary doctorates from the universities of York, Illinois at Chicago, St Andrews and Tromso, and her numerous awards include the Council of Europe North-South Prize, the Women of the Year Award (UK), Sean MacBride Peace Prize (Ireland), and the National Order of Merit (France). She wrote over fifty novels, short stories and non-fiction works which centre on the status of Arab women, which have been translated into more than thirty languages.