This book gives and takes and reading it feels like having a moral war with your conscience. Does that make sense? If not, it feels like having a therapy session, you think of all the possibilities and the Therapist tells you, 'am here to listen, and you can think of this.'
The story begins at the big feast and we are introduced to Bint Allah, an illegitimate child who is running from the world. This big feast is attended by the Imam whose word is law and the people believe he is God's mouthpiece, it is also at this event that the Imam is murdered, but we keep going back to it because no one is certain of his death since he always has his bodyguards act as his double.
There is also the recurrent death of Bint Allah that depicts her being stabbed with a knife, stoned, or stoned and buried in a hole to die and the narrative continues.
Nawal, the author, writes as though she is in a maze. Her prose jumps from one character to another sometimes its a character's conscience and sometimes it is the law, but one thing is certain, it is not consistent. If you are used to flow, then you will be frustrated by this story.
It depicts the struggle of women at a time when the men do as they please and the women suffer the consequences. If a woman is accused of adultery she is stoned to death in the name of honor while the man she was with helps in throwing the stones. But, in this story there is Gawaher, who happens to be the mistress of not only the Imam, but the Great Writer and Chief of Security. Bint Allah is constantly asking the people out to stone her why they accuse the victim and let the criminal go, which begs the question of what is just when some people are condemned and others set free?
This book is more of a collection of events as narrated by different characters in an attempt to get the reader to question his/her actions, beliefs and more so not to follow blindly what one person decrees in the name of a higher being.