Women Who Blow on Knots
Rikke’s Review:
I chose this partly because it is my next bookclub book and partly because it sounds so fascinating. The reviews write: ‘Women Who Blow on Knots is an engaging, funny and fast-paced book about four women hitting the road during a trip from Tunisia to Lebanon as the Arab Spring breaks around them.
Women Who Blow on Knots is an engaging, funny and fast-paced book about four women hitting the road during the Arab Spring. Three young women and the extraordinary Madam Lilla embark on a road trip from Tunisia to Lebanon as the Arab Spring breaks around them. The novel’s title is taken from a sura in the Koran that warns to beware of those ‘women who blow on knots’ because they do witchcraft. The women all set out for different reasons but each holds a secret that drives them forward. It is only as they travel further across the desert that Madam Lilla’s dark intentions become clear and their quest begins hurtling towards an unimaginable end. Unique and controversial in its country of origin for its political rhetoric and atypical Muslim female characters, Ece Temelkuran weaves an empowering tale that challenges us to ponder not only the social questions of politics, religion and women in the Middle East, but also the universal bonds of sister- and motherhood.
