Vroege RecensentenJessica Jiji

When two Iraqi families—one Jewish and one Muslim—break through a wall in their adjoining courtyard to accommodate a shared water pipe, two young boys, from two very different cultures, begin passing notes through the hole. As the world disintegrates around them, these boys become fast friends and their families a microcosm of the brotherhood many Jewish and Muslim families nurtured through successive wars. Developing into a love story as old and fraught as Romeo and Juliet, the Jewish boy falls in love with and compromises a beautiful Marsh Arab maid, whose mother is determined to preserve her daughter’s honor in a land where the loss of it can be punishable by death. Set during the tumultuous years surrounding World War II, SWEET DATES IN BASRA is the redemptive story of an unlikely friendship and a forbidden love amidst two converging worlds and a powerful reminder that human solidarity holds the potential for deliverance. “Infused with love and longing, Sweet Dates in Basra weaves a colorful tapestry of life in a multilayered society with all of its charms—family life, street life, markets, foods, and celebrations—a story that is rich in detail and highly absorbing.” — Yvette Raby, coauthor of The Lost World of the Egyptian Jews “Jiji’s breezy tale of star-crossed love is a reminder of the power of the heart over the strictures of tradition.” — Ariel Sabar, author of My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq “This novel is a powerful love poem. American readers will be fascinated by the solidarity and comradeship between the Muslim and Jewish families as they suffer crisis after crisis.” — Professor Saadi Simawe, author of Out of the Lamp and editor of Iraqi Poetry Today