What interest me most in this book is the totally completely difference in culture (including religion / set of belief) from me, myself, and mine. In some ways, it's a little bit shocking when I am reading it through a character's perspective. I know these beliefs of certain standards in culture / religion is not uncommon but somehow it still shocks me and makes it more real to me after I "heard" it from a "person".This is a family saga, of sort. It's telling the story of the family of Ahmad Abd al-Jawad; it alternates between the views of Ahmad Abd al-Jawad to that of his wife's (Amina) and his children (Yasin, Khadija, Fahmy, Aisha, and Kamal). As a devout Moslem, Ahmad runs a very strict and conservative household where complete obedience & submission to his will from all is excpected and none of the women are allowed outside at any time. However, for himself he allowed a wide margin of "fun" where at night, he will be out about town drinking forbidden wine and seeking sexual pleasures in other women. Yes, a debauched hypocrite whom I feel quite violent towards!His wife, Amina, in the meanwhile is a picture of a model Moslem wife. Her will of steel, mostly, kept her in full obedience and submission to the will of her husband (ironic, a bit, not?) She limits herself in her thoughts and took pleasures in her family (her children, specifically).The children themselves, whilst terrified of their father's temper, kept mostly obedient until such times that forbidden desires overflowed, followed by automatic compliance then consequences to be faced as secrets are never meant to be kept in this household.
