Love in the Kingdom of Oil

A woman disappears without a trace. The police commissioner investigating the case enquires: was she of dubious morals, was she the rebellious sort? Nobody understands how a woman could simply walk away from it all, 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 she finally reappears there is a blurring of the distinctions between the men in her life. She leaves one to become the wife of another, and when she eventually returns to her first husband, she finds he has taken a new wife. In many ways, to her all men are one and the same In this rich novel El Saadawi dares anew to confront major issues and questions surrounding a womans role and position in a repressive, patriarchal order. More than any other woman, Saadawi has come to embody the trials of Arab feminism. San Francisco Chronicle Egypts foremost feminist writer confronts the role of women in Muslim society ... Saadawi writes beautifully and in abundant and evocative physical detail of an Egypt that remains closely tied to the land and to a way of life that in many respects has not changed for centuries. Publishers Weekly