Happy Wednesday everyone! Wednesdays also mean WWW Wednesday updates. WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme hosted originally by SAM@TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS. 

The mechanics for WWW Wednesday are quite simple, you just have to answer three questions:

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What have you finished reading?
  3. What will you read next?
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What are you currently reading?

How time flies! Just like that, we are nearly halfway through the eleventh month of the year. This means we are inching closer to the conclusion of 2024 and the commencement of a new one. I hope that the year has been kind to everyone. I hope everyone has completed their goals or is on track to achieving them. I hope that everyone gets repaid for their hard work. I hope the remainder of the year will shower everyone with blessings and good news. As I approach the final stretch of the year, my focus, reading-wise, has shifted to the remaining books in my reading challenges. Well, I guess this is nothing new. I have always scrambled toward the end of the year. However, I tried to take a break from this and instead explore unfamiliar territories. This takes me to Nawal El Saadawi’s God Dies by the Nile.

Before this year, I had not encountered the Egyptian writer; it was recently that I came across her through an online bookseller. Ever the curious cat raring to expand his literary purview, I obtained a copy of the book. Referred to as the Simone de Beauvoir of the Arab world, El Saadawi is a prominent name in Arabic literature. God Dies by the Nile is set in Kafr El Teen, a village along the Nile, where peasants toil the land for its meager harvests. At the heart of the story is Zakeya whose family is exploited by an oppressive patriarchal system. Members of her family were raped, falsely imprisoned, or disappeared. At the helm of this oppressive system was the town’s mayor, flanked by the town’s most influential: the Imam of the village mosque, the barber and local healer, and the Head of the Village Guard. The book is a short read but relentless in its exploration of the impact of the patriarchy. The book makes me look forward to reading more of El Saadawi’s works.

What have you finished reading?

As mentioned above, the focus of my reading journey in the final stretch of the year is the books that are part of my ongoing reading challenges. With Mia Couto’s Woman of the Ashes, I am ticking off one more book in my 2024 Top 24 Reading List; it is the 22nd book on the list that I read. Before the pandemic, I have never heard of the Mozambican writer. Imagine my surprise when I learned he has earned accolades across the world, including the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2014 and the Camões Prize in 2013, the most important literary award in the Portuguese language. These are just among the reasons for the inclusion of Woman of the Ashes on my 2024 Top 24 Reading List.

Originally published in 2018, the novel commences in 1894 when 15-year-old Imani’s village of Nkokolani finds itself stuck between two looming powers: on one side is a group of different ethnic groups, led by the terrifying emperor Ngungunyane and on the other are the Portuguese, whose king Dom Carlos sends various emissaries to the regions, of which the latest is Sergeant Germano de Melo. The novel, I just learned, takes inspiration from the story of Ngungunyane, nicknamed the Lion of Gaza, the last emperor to rule the southern half of Mozambique in the late 19th century. It is also worthy to note that Mozambique was a Portuguese colony until 1975 and Couto is the son of Portuguese settlers. Imani and Sergeant de Melo’s paths inevitably intersected when the Portuguese enlisted her assistance as an interpreter. From her perspective, Imani tells us the story of her family and why they moved from the coast. Alternating with her voice are the letters sent by Sergeant de Melo to his superiors in Portugal. Sergeant de Melo’s letters provide a glimpse into his character and his growing concern. This is the same in the case of Imani whose family sided with the Portuguese. However, internal strife within Imani’s family captured how divided they were between the Crown and the African Emperor. The first book in the As Areias do Imperador (Sands of the Emperor) trilogy, Woman of the Ashes makes me look forward to reading more of Couto’s works.

It was just now that I realized that three of the books I featured in this week’s WWW Wednesday update are works of African literature. From Mozambique, I traveled north to Egypt, with Sami Bindari as my literary guide. Like most of the writers in this weekly update, it was during the pandemic that I first came across the Egyptian writer. His novel, The House of Power immediately piqued my interest. Curious about what the book has in store, I included it in my 2024 Beat the Backlist Challenge, making it the 15th book from the list that I read. This also underlines my growing interest in Egyptian literary works, and by extension, Arabic literature; this is partly instigated by Nobel Laureate in Literature Naguib Mahfouz.

At the heart of The House of Power is Saleh Hawari, a peasant on a feudal estate called the Palace; it can be surmised that it is the titular house of power. The Palace dictates nearly every facet of Saleh’s and his fellow peasants’ lives. When we first meet him, he lost his father, prompting him to look for work to support himself and his blind mother. This also entailed Saleh giving up his thoughts on education and a career; unlike his peers, he could read and write. The only viable work available to peasants is tilling the cotton fields. Getting the job, however, proved to be an endeavor because several obstacles were impeding his path. With persistence and fortune smiling on him, Saleh overcame these initial challenges. More trouble was on his way. His association with Yasmeen, the town harlot, did not make life easier for him; they were always the subject of rumors. From a frail worker, Saleh became a reliable worker. We also read about his romantic entanglement. However, it was another uphill climb Class differences and social chasms permeate the story. The House of Power underscores the struggles of modern Egypt, making it a riveting read.

What will you read next?