Historical fiction meets crime fiction in The Djinn's Apple , an award-winning YA murder mystery set in the Abbasid period—the golden age of Baghdad. A ruthless murder. A magical herb. A mysterious manuscript. When Nardeen’s home is stormed by angry men frantically in search of something—or someone—she is the only one who manages to escape. And after the rest of her family is left behind and murdered, Nardeen sets out on an unyielding mission to bring her family’s killers to justice, regardless of the cost…
Djamila Morani ~ Author
Sawad Hussain ~ Translator
Historical Fiction
29 February 2024
128 Pages
My Rating ~ 4 bites
Nardeen’s family is brutally murdered when she’s 12. Her father helped her to get away before he and the rest are slain. She goes back to the house and only gleans a few hints as to how and why before she’s beaten and sold to a slaver. Her life begins again when she is taken under the wing of a famous doctor. Four years pass as she learns more and more about being medicine and being a doctor under his tutelage. Then things really hit the fan.
This book starts off with a brutal bang and doesn’t let up until the end. Nardeen is a great character and while 1st person isn’t my favorite POV, it works. The pacing is just right and the world building is excellent even if there are a lot of names to remember and how they relate to each other. I know nothing about this region and period of history so it’s all a bit bewildering to me. Fascinating though. I have to say, I enjoyed this book immensely and look forward to adding the author to my favorites list.
Djamila Morani is an Algerian novelist and an Arabic language professor. Her first novel, released in 2015 and titled Taj el-Khatiaa, is set in the Abbasid period (like The Djinn’s Apple), but in Kazakh- stan. All of her works are fast-paced historical fiction pieces. She is yet to have a full-length work translated into English.
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