The Orchards of Basra: Mansoura Ez-Eldin

A historical novel that shifts between contemporary Cairo and Ancient Iraq.

In this captivating and remarkably translated novel, Mansoura Ez-Eldin invites us to a round trip in time and space, between Cairo and Basra in Iraq, to meet timeless characters in a masterfully-told story which subtly mixes fiction and historical reality.

Hisham lives at home with his impoverished mother in Minya, on the western bank of the Nile. Like so many other young people in Egypt, who have managed to attend co...