The Djinn's Apple

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Winner of an English PEN Translates Award

Set in 8th century Baghdad during the Abbasid period, when the city enjoyed a glittering golden age of learning, trade and culture, Djamila Morani’s The Djinn's Apple sees sixteen-year-old Nardeen on a mission to avenge her family’s deaths. Richly lyrical — Sawad Husssain’s translation reads fabulously — it’s a pithy murder mystery centred on a bright young woman’s resolve to put wrongs to right, while grappling with personal conflicts. 

Nardeen is just twelve when her family home is raided by violent men who seem to be searching for something that belongs to her father, a learned doctor who, in her words, “knew how big my dreams were, and that this world wasn’t ready for a girl with dreams like mine”, though he remained devoted to teaching her.   

When her family are murdered during the raid, Nardeen faces enslavement, but finds a mentor who also allows her to study medicine: “I want you to be a doctor who takes on the men here. I don’t want you to just be as good as them, I want you to shake them up.”  

But Nardeen remains set on avenging the murder of her family, with her journey to realising that fraught with conflict, peril, poison and pain. Above all, though, The Djinn's Apple tells a gripping tale of courage and resolve.

Joanne Owen

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