To learn more about her, you can read her blog, although it hasn’t been updated much this year.
Thus far, on GoodReads, al-Maghrabi seems to be the only one who’s rated her novel, although she’s quite open about it. She gave it five stars.
Women of Wind is a moving story of female friendship and the secret lives of women. It tells the story of a Moroccan servant girl who requests the help of the women in her life to help raise enough money secure a passage on a smugglers’ ship. Before the heroine embarks on her harrowing voyage, the narrative weaves together the stories of the different women who help her, from the Iraqi woman who acts as a go-between between the heroine and the smugglers, to a female novelist and a little girl whose mother has abandoned her.
Reviews
‘Ala Madar Al-Hamal
Collected reviews (on the author’s blog)
Women of Wind
Previously profiled: Egyptian Miral al-Tahawy, longlisted for her Brooklyn Heights, Bensalam Himmich, for My Tormentor, Fawaz Haddad, for God’s Soldiers, Khairy Shalaby, for Istasia, Raja Alem for The Doves’ Necklace, Renee Hayek for A Short Life, Waciny Laredj for The Andalucian House, Maha Hassan for Secret Rope, Mohammad Achaari for The Arch and the Butterfly, Maqbul Moussa Al-Alawi for Turmoil in Jeddah, and Khaled al-Berry for Middle Eastern Dance.
See the full longlist here.
*Yes, sorry, we’re now getting into writers about whom I know little or nothing. If you have something to add, of course…!