Jonathan Wright

An Excerpt from "Judgment Day" by Rasha al Ameer

In Rasha al Ameer's Judgment Day (first published in Beirut in 2002 by Dar Al-Jadeed) a reclusive and middle-aged Muslim cleric from a rural background tells the story of how he falls in love with an independent, educated and urban woman who invites him to work on a book about the great Arab poet Mutanabbi. The relationship opens the man's eyes to aspects of life he has never encountered and leads him to reconsider everything he has ever learned. In this section, set in the ...