Bahrain is this little guy:
Um, I don't know that Bahrain is actually a little guy. Upon further research, it has over 1.2 million people. I'll be honest, I don't really know if that's little or not. I'm just gonna stick with that little guy. I like it.
So here's the description:
Khadeeja is a child who is forced into womanhood early. She is compelled to marry a man much older than she through arranged marriage and lives a world of hardships from then on. Her mother dies soon after her wedding, leaving her with a husband she hardly knows and two brothers she knows nothing of. Khadeeja learns to love her husband and win his love in return, but just as she thought her life was a beautiful love story her precious son dies from a scorpion bite. Grief and sadness become her new best friends. Her husband, whom she can't live without, abandons her without warning and she is left to raise and support eight children while pregnant with the ninth. Her brother, who finds out about his sister's misfortune and the truth behind his brother-in-law's actions, returns to Bahrain to take care of Khadeeja, but when he finds out about his cheating wife falls ill with sadness and grief and soon dies. Khadeeja forces herself to survive with the faith and patience she has inherited from her late mother and faces life's war with strength, courage and pride. She grows with her children; she grows with time; she grows with history - her country's history. She succeeds in raising wonderful children who go through their own share of happiness and misfortune. Her husband, who married another woman for money, returns filled with regret and in a wheelchair. Though Khadeeja was hurt and angry she opens her arms for him with love and forgiveness, but watching him die in her arms takes her back in time as she goes through the grief all over again. As a great-grandmother Khadeeja sits back to watch her triumph, her success and dies with dignity, leaving behind a legend to be remembered by many.
You may read that synopsis and think that it gives you the whole book, but it's misleading. *I'll try to weed out the incorrect parts without giving too much away.*
But let me start with: Wahoo! I finished this one in less than a week! Was it super long? No. Under 200 pages. Was it a difficult read? No. Almost childlike in its simplicity. Was it engaging? Yes. Fantastic story.
Ok. So yes, she goes into an arranged marriage at 12, but she's *totally in love* from the first day. Which, I gotta say, annoyed me a little. Partly because of my bias against arranged marriage, partly because the description makes it sound otherwise, and partly because twelve.
But, whatever. So when her mom dies (spoiler) she's just found out she's pregnant. So yeah it's obviously not an easy thing, but she has her husband who she loves and loves her, and the new baby that she's very excited about. So it makes it sound worse. It doesn't get really bad for her until her husband leaves. Although, I guess I can't really say that. I mean she was obviously a child when she had to become a wife and mother so that's gotta mess up your head. And she has a doll that's legit her best friend. So, psychologically (or social workologically!) I think you could probably make a case that she's pretty much mentally stuck at 12.
Honestly, it was a really good story and a fast read. There were just a few things that were hangups though. I imagine it was the translation, but it wasn't great...there were quite a few grammatical errors and a lot of missing commas. The language seemed very modern and western, but that could be my ignorance. It doesn't reference a time frame for quite a while so I'm guessing it begins in maybe the 1940s or '50s...I originally imagined it much earlier. But the actual story line really hooked me. It went in depth with this family and was pretty easy to follow. I also loved that there would be a foreign word for something and the author described what it was so it was easier for me to imagine the setting.
Some of the books on this around the world quest are kind of hard to find, and *I think* this was one I had to search for a bit. I might be making that up, but it sounds right. All I have to go on is the description so they're not all hits, but this one was definitely worth it. It's re-energized my enthusiasm for this challenge and I'm excited to start the next book. Even though I don't remember what anything about it. So...onward!
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