Jamila AhmedBesprekingen

In a Nutshell: Not a retelling of the original Arabian classic but a spinoff with Shaherazade at the helm. Mixed feelings. The storytelling elements retain the same spirit and appeal as in the original, but Shaherazade’s personal story is somewhat YA-ish in writing approach (though not so in content.)

Story Synopsis:

1191 ADE. Persia. When nineteen-year-old Shaherazade discovers that Malik Shahriyar’s wife Fataneh is cheating on him, she let’s Shahriyar know about his wife’s infidelity through an anonymous poem. Shahriyar is devastated at the actions of the wife he treasured so much that he has her beheaded. He doesn’t stop at this, but marries three more virgins and has them beheaded after the wedding night. To stop the townspeople from rebelling and also put an end to the Malik’s murderous plans, Shaherazade volunteers to be Shahriyar’s next bride, much against the wishes of her father, the Malik's vizier. Shaherazade plans to use her storytelling talent to narrate a story every night, and leave it hanging in a way that the Malik will allow her to live another day just to know what happens.
The main story comes to us in the first person perspective of Shaherazade.

Think about certain bookish terms we use while reading or reviewing. Story-within-a-story, cliffhanger ending, unreliable narrator,… All of these originated in a compilation of Middle-Eastern folk tales written in Arabic during the ‘Islamic Golden Age.’ Titled ‘Alf Laylah wa-Laylah’, we know this collection by its English title, ‘One Thousand and One Nights’, or the more popular ‘Arabian Nights.’ Even if you haven’t read the English adaptation, you would be aware of some of its stories, such as “Alibaba and the Forty Thieves”, “Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp”, and “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor”. (Strictly speaking, they are not considered part of the original Arabic collection but were added much later by the French translator Antoine Galland. But that’s a story for another day as this review is already too long.)

The framing device for the current book is somewhat similar to the original. The main story is about Shaherazade trying to save her neck (literally!) by narrating a story to her new husband. But this book doesn’t stop at that. Rather, it focusses on a triple agenda: Shaherazade’s personal life (her marriage, her relationship with her sister and her dad, and her other interactions), the local socio-historical events (Christian French crusaders attacking the Muslim-governed empires, local politics), and of course, Shaherazade’s stories (fully-formed narratives that stand on their own.) I’ll analyse each aspect separately:


I. The Main Story: Shaherazade’s Personal Life
Shaherazade is the heroine of the original tale. Her sacrifice saves the life of many young girls, and she also saves the young Sultan from committing more unjustified murders. That angle is retained in this book as well, though Shahriyar murders only four wives before Shaherazade marries him in this retelling. However, Shaherazade isn’t portrayed as the benevolent girl that you might expect. Other than being a masterful narrator, she is quite a judgemental and conniving girl, using her brain and her tongue to manipulate people into following her ideas.

I am honestly not sure how to feel about her. On the one hand, there’s nothing like a Machiavellian character to provide a layered reading experience. On the other hand, Shaherazade doesn’t come across as consistent, wavering between intelligence and naïveté as per the demands of the plot. Some of her decisions were just befuddling! I am not sure if her young age was kept as a factor in her depiction because her portrayal was very much like a YA protagonist, which is NOT a compliment because I hate the “my heart did this, my cheeks did that, my stomach did something else’ kind of writing. As she goes only from nineteen to twenty in the course of this 430-page book, don’t even expect her to grow in maturity.

Shahriyar, on the contrary and despite some of his cruel actions, is an excellently written character until almost the end. His motivations are clear, and his decisions come from the head after his heart is broken. I loved the depth in his character, and wished all the characters had been so well fleshed out. Sadly, most of the remaining characters didn’t match up.

Surprisingly for a woman-oriented story, not one female character shows depth. Rather, all are somewhat flat and monotonous in the roles . Shaherazade’s sister Dunya would have been memorable because her arc had some amazing potential. But she is left on the sideburner except when she is needed to propel the novel in a different direction. I wish she had been utilised better.


II. The Socio-Politico-Historical Aspects:
The novel also highlights the threat to the town of Bam by the Oghuz Turks, and the even larger threat to the local Seljuk Empire through the invading French Crusaders who used their Christian faith to attack all “infidels”.

On the positive side, it was refreshing to see the perspective of a Muslim woman on the upcoming threats, with the Crusaders being shown as villains, so unlike most other stories that have the roles reversed. I loved this more accurate take on the Crusades, which were nothing but a mislabelled invasion of human rights.

At the same time, the Muslims aren’t cast as picture-perfect, and their patriarchal, misogynistic ways are visible in many scenes. But here too, there is a kind of balance. Shaherazade seems to be a part of many discussions with top-rung Muslim leaders, mostly while accompanied by Shahriyar, but sometimes, even on her own strength. This revolutionary feminist portrayal took me a while to adjust to, because I simply couldn’t digest the idea of a young girl being allowed in courts and allowed to speak to men not from her family, and even being present during military strategy discussions. However, the author’s parting note states that the era did have female Muslim leaders, and women were allowed a voice, unlike what current society insists. I will take her word for it for I am sure she has researched more into the topic.


III. Shaherazade’s Tales:
The framing device lends itself to multiple stories within stories that Shaherazade narrates in a gamut of raconteurial styles. Some of her stories are self-contained. Some have one character having multiple adventures (just like Sinbad does.) At times, the characters in her stories begin narrating a story of their own. These narrated stories cover a variety of genres such as romance, adventure, crime, fantasy and horror. I am not sure if author Jamila Ahmed actually wrote these stories for the book, or if she adapted some of the lesser-known tales from the original for this narrative. Either way, she has done a marvellous job on this aspect. Every story that Shaherazade narrates is a treat.

The only negative of the above is that Shaherazade‘s regular storytelling interrupts the main story: that of her own life. In the original book, this didn’t matter much as we hardly get to know anything about Shahriyar and Shaherazade. Their only purpose there was to be a conduit for the stories. However, as they both get a much meatier role in their retelling, waiting for their story in between the extended secondary tales was a test of my patience.


The Overall Writing Style:
Again, mixed feelings. The world-building is excellent, and I could visualise the gritty deserts as well as the lavish palaces easily through the author’s words. But this doesn’t mean that I could overlook the YA-kind of rambling in Shaherazade’s first person pov and the lack of character development.

This is such a complicated storyline, so to bring all the threads to a neat ending would have been a tough task, especially considering that this is a debut work. But the author manages this mostly well. It departs much from that of the original, but isn’t necessarily bad. In a way, I guess I like this better as it is more realistic, and Shahriyar is not absolved of all his sins. But it is too rushed and feels like a hasty tying up of all that’s left to discuss.

There are many Arabic/Persian words in the writing. As many of these are similar to Urdu/Hindi, I had no problem figuring out the meanings, but Western readers might need a glossary. At times though, there is a literal translation of the regional phrases and this sounds quite funny in English. For instance, “mere kaleje ka tukda” literally means “a piece of my liver” but is an idiom indicating someone dear. So to see one character call another “Oh my liver” made me burst into chuckles. It just doesn’t work in English!

Every Rising Sun by Jamila Ahmed is a re-imagining of the stories of the Arabian Nights. This debut novel envisions this tale through the eyes of Shaherazade, the storyteller of the Arabian Nights. I love seeing some of stories of my childhood brought to a new envisioning and perhaps to an audience that may not be as familiar with these tales. However, the book introduces some inconsistencies in the characters and an ending that leaves me unsatisfied for I do not see why or how.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2024/01/every-rising-sun.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

She was not safe. No woman was ever safe, anywhere in this world.
from Every Rising Sun by Jamila Ahmed

This richly imagined novel inspired by One Thousand and One Nights offers a vibrant Shaherazade, a flawed woman discovering the limitations of love and the power of words. She controls her husband’s rage and advises him in military and political decisions; Shahyar tells her, “You should have been born Malik.”

As an idealistic thirteen-year-old at the Malik Shahyar’s wedding, she imagined the handsome couple madly in love. Witnessing his wife’s infidelity, she writes a letter of warning to the Malik, who discovering his wife in the act has her murdered. In his anger, he marries and murders two more wives before Shaherazade offers herself, sure her pure love and gift of storytelling will win the Malik’s heart. The tale she spins for the Malik is of a young woman disguised as a man whose adventures offers Shahyar respite from his worldly cares.

Shaherazade follows Shahyar as he travels to join Saladin fighting the Frankish Crusades. Unable to break through to Shahyar’s heart and ignite his love, Shaherazade can’t stop thinking about the Emir who has proclaimed his love for her.

I was engrossed by Shaherazade’s story and her exotic world. But, I became too eager to follow the frame of her story to really truly appreciate the tale embedded within. With the book over 400 pages long, I wanted to learn what happens to her and began to speed read through her tale.

Viewing the Crusades through the eyes of those defending their homeland may be eye-opening to some readers.

I was enchanted by Shaherazade’s exotic world: the descriptions of the spiced food that made my mouth water, the gorgeous fabrics and colorful carpets I could see in my mind’s eye, the cool gardens and the scorching desert sun. But we are also taken into the horrors of war, with the Franks and with vying tribes, with all its death and destruction.

Inspired by one of the world’s most influential collection of folk stories, Every Rising Sun is sure to enchant.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.