Bitter Orange Tree
by Jokha Alharthi
Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2023, James Tait Black Finalist 2022
Date Read: August 24, 2023
Bitter Orange Tree is a multi-generational look at the contrast in opportunities between an Omani woman studying in Europe and a relative who acted like her grandmother who squeezed herself into the role required of her.
Zuhour is studying medicine in England. She is aware of the lonliness, longing and unfulfilled dreams that Bint Aamir endured. Bint Aamir was pretty much a servant hired by Zuhour’s real grandparents. She raised Zuhour’s father, Mahmoud, and then raised Zuhour and her siblings. The great love of her life, though, was Mahmoud, a man she loved from afar but never possessed.
Bint Aamir’s life was challenged from the moment of her birth – abandoned by her parents, blinded in one eye, never able to marry, a lifelong servant to one family. The only reason Bint Aamir plagues Zuhour’s thoughts is because she failed to say goodbye when she left Oman for medical school. Only her guilt is what keeps Bint Aamir in mind.
In England, Zuhour is also mildly obsessed with Kuhl and Imran. They have entered into a temporary marriage (never knew there was such a thing) because Imran comes from a poor background and Kuhl’s parents would never allow her to marry. Zuhour finds herself attracted to them both and in awe of their love, yet being left on the outside, much like Bint Aamir was her entire life.
Overall, this is a muddied novel with interesting cultural insights but the story itself seems chaotic and not developed as well as it could be. I was continually surprised by how women go about making money in their culture – making kohl, sewing, gathering dates, renting themselves out for fasting on someone else’s behalf. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
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