katie_greenwinginmymouth's reviews
565 reviews

The book presents a chorus of voices presenting their experience of the epidemic and is book-ended by the voice of the ancient baobab tree whose longevity gives a more than human perspective on these events and a perspective from which to critique humankind’s exploitation of the natural world. In between we hear from numerous people affected by the virus, healthcare workers, NGO workers, sanitation workers, outreach workers and even a bat and the virus itself.

Sometimes fable-like and sometimes like oral testimony the story unfolds in a simple, direct way that works well for the subject matter. What stuck with me most was the contrast between the treatment given to the NGO worker who was immediately flown back to their country for treatment compared to the death of the country’s most knowledgeable clinician because no western country would authorise his transfer to them for treatment. Time and again it seems that desperate situations magnify inequalities and block simple, lifesaving actions. We are overwhelmed with evidence of this it seems these days…

Reading stories like this it’s not hard to point to aspects of life for women and girls that reflect certain shared types of experiences. We are miles apart and yet… there is still the anxiety about bodies changing in adolescence, the prying eyes of men, the rebellion against controlling parents. And yet, and yet… we can’t forget that for the women in Sheikha Helawy’s stories all this happens against the backdrop of surviving against the odds as Bedouin people in Israeli occupied Palestine. The women in these stories are vibrantly, vitally alive…unique, individual, assertive of their own identities, they also carry the memories of others, of the village that they have lost, the huge oak tree, the football field, the tyre swing. They have their secrets also and rich lives lived in ways you might not guess.