Woman at Point Zero

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, read by Amira Ghazalla.

'An unforgettable, unmissable book for the new global feminist.'
The Times

'I think her life has been one long death threat. At a time when nobody else was talking, she spoke the unspeakable' – Margaret Atwood


'All the men I did get to know filled me with but one desire: to lift my hand and bring it smashing down on his face.'

So begins Firdaus's remarkable story of rebellion against a society founded on lies, hypocrisy, brutality and oppression. Born to a peasant family in the Egyptian countryside, Firdaus struggles through childhood, seeking compassion and knowledge in a world which gives her little of either. As she grows up and escapes the fetters of her childhood, each new relationship teaches her a bitter but liberating truth – that the only free people are those who want nothing, fear nothing and hope for nothing.

This classic novel has been an inspiration to countless people across the world. Saadawi's searing indictment of society's brutal treatment of women continues to resonate today.

Critics Review

I think her life has been one long death threat. At a time when nobody else was talking, she spoke the unspeakable
Margaret Atwood
Nawal El Saadawi writes with directness and passion, transforming the systematic brutalisation of peasants and of women into powerful allegory.
The New York Times
This book will look you dead in the eye… I thoroughly recommend this book because it will make you examine the ways in which people in impossible situations can retain dignity and control over themselves. Read it wide-eyed
Books By Broads
The most influential feminist thinker in the Arab world over the past half-century.
Financial Times
El Saadawi has a flair for melodrama and mystery
International Journal of Middle East Studies
A powerful indictment of the treatment of women in many parts of the Middle East, Labour Herald Woman at Point Zero should begin the long march towards a realistic and sympathetic portrayal of Arab women
Middle East International
Scorching
New Internationalist
Simple, but sharp and infuriating... Woman at Point Zero is the story of one Arab woman, but it reads as if it is every woman’s life
Spare Rib
An unforgettable, unmissable book for the new global feminist
The Times
This novella opened my eyes to the ideas of power structures
Ailah Ahmed, Stylist
This extraordinary novel, written with such compassion, forces us to the edge, and deep inside what must be one of the worst tales of women’s oppression while somehow managing to inspire hope, if only through the courage of Nawal El Saadawi for being one of the first to tell this story to the world
Jacqueline Rose
Leaves an indelible mark. This is a tale of injustice, inequality and sheer bad luck - written with such grace and skill as to be on a part with the finest literature of this or any era - haunting, poetic and fiercely relevant
Scott Pack, The Friday Project

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