A Lullaby in the Desert, though fiction, is a stark book that conveys the horror of real events occurring in certain parts of the Middle East. Azar goes a wonderful job setting the scene of bombed out skeletons of buildings, the tension of getting through life on a day-to-day basis while living in a war zone, and that war zone is split between multiple factions and shifts constantly. Not only that, woman are viewed as worthless except for their sexual potential. They are forced to hide beneath shawls, hijabs, and chadoors so that men cannot sin by gazing upon them.
The protagonist, Susan, is currently the sole support of a disabled mother (her hand was destroyed in an argument with her husband) and a drug-addicted father. Susan flees home at an early age to avoid marriage to a much older man. Eventually, Susan decides to attempt an escape to Germany and arranges for passage with a human smuggler. On this journey she experiences many devastatingly traumatic moments. This book is not an easy read, full of truly unspeakable views of man’s inhumanity to his fellow men—and women. The story ends when Susan reaches the ocean. I would have loved to see the book continue and to see her complete her journey. Despite her travails, this is a longing for a better life, a odyssey of hope.
The story is told in a rather distant third-person omniscient point of view with the reader seeing into many of the characters’ heads, and I wonder if it might have been more compelling in a closer third-person POV.
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A Lullaby in the Desert is available through Amazon.
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