Every Rising Sun - Jamila Ahmed - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Jamila Ahmed

NARRATOR: Sulin Hasso

GENRE: Retelling, Historical Fiction.

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: Not a retelling of the original Arabian classic but a spinoff with Shaherazade at the helm. Mixed feelings. The storytelling elements retain the same spirit and appeal as in the original, but Shaherazade’s personal story is somewhat YA-ish in writing approach (though not so in content.)

Story Synopsis:

1191 ADE. Persia. When nineteen-year-old Shaherazade discovers that Malik Shahriyar’s wife Fataneh is cheating on him, she let’s Shahriyar know about his wife’s infidelity through an anonymous poem. Shahriyar is devastated at the actions of the wife he treasured so much that he has her beheaded. He doesn’t stop at this, but marries three more virgins and has them beheaded after the wedding night. To stop the townspeople from rebelling and also put an end to the Malik’s murderous plans, Shaherazade volunteers to be Shahriyar’s next bride, much against the wishes of her father, the Malik's vizier. Shaherazade plans to use her storytelling talent to narrate a story every night, and leave it hanging in a way that the Malik will allow her to live another day just to know what happens.

The main story comes to us in the first person perspective of Shaherazade.

Think about certain bookish terms we use while reading or reviewing. Story-within-a-story, cliffhanger ending, unreliable narrator,… All of these originated in a compilation of Middle-Eastern folk tales written in Arabic during the ‘Islamic Golden Age.’ Titled ‘Alf Laylah wa-Laylah’, we know this collection by its English title, ‘One Thousand and One Nights’, or the more popular ‘Arabian Nights.’ Even if you haven’t read the English adaptation, you would be aware of some of its stories, such as “Alibaba and the Forty Thieves”, “Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp”, and “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor”. (Strictly speaking, they are not considered part of the original Arabic collection but were added much later by the French translator Antoine Galland. But that’s a story for another day.)

The framing device for the current book is somewhat similar to the original. The main story is about Shaherazade trying to save her neck (literally!) by narrating a story to her new husband. But this book doesn’t stop at that. Rather, it focusses on a triple agenda: Shaherazade’s personal life (her marriage, her relationship with her sister and her dad, and her other interactions), the local socio-historical events (Christian French crusaders attacking the Muslim-governed empires, local politics), and of course, Shaherazade’s stories (fully-formed narratives that stand on their own.) I’ll analyse each aspect separately:

I. The Main Story: Shaherazade’s Personal Life

Shaherazade is the heroine of the original tale. Her sacrifice saves the life of many young girls, and she also saves the young Sultan from committing more unjustified murders. That angle is retained in this book as well, though Shahriyar murders only four wives before Shaherazade marries him in this retelling. However, Shaherazade isn’t portrayed as the benevolent girl that you might expect. Other than being a masterful narrator, she is quite a judgemental and conniving girl, using her brain and her tongue to manipulate people into following her ideas.

I am honestly not sure how to feel about her. On the one hand, there’s nothing like a Machiavellian character to provide a layered reading experience. On the other hand, Shaherazade doesn’t come across as consistent, wavering between intelligence and naïveté as per the demands of the plot. Some of her decisions were just befuddling! I am not sure if her young age was kept as a factor in her depiction because her portrayal was very much like a YA protagonist, which is NOT a compliment because I hate the “my heart did this, my cheeks did that, my stomach did something else’ kind of writing. As she goes only from nineteen to twenty in the course of this 430-page book, don’t even expect her to grow in maturity.

Shahriyar, on the contrary and despite some of his cruel actions, is an excellently written character until almost the end. His motivations are clear, and his decisions come from the head after his heart is broken. I loved the depth in his character, and wished all the characters had been so well fleshed out. Sadly, most of the remaining characters didn’t match up.

Surprisingly for a woman-oriented story, not one female character shows depth. Rather, all are somewhat flat and monotonous in the roles . Shaherazade’s sister Dunya would have been memorable because her arc had some amazing potential. But she is left on the sideburner except when she is needed to propel the novel in a different direction. I wish she had been utilised better.

II. The Socio-Politico-Historical Aspects:

The novel also highlights the threat to the town of Bam by the Oghuz Turks, and the even larger threat to the local Seljuk Empire through the invading French Crusaders who used their Christian faith to attack all “infidels”.

On the positive side, it was refreshing to see the perspective of a Muslim woman on the upcoming threats, with the Crusaders being shown as villains, so unlike most other stories that have the roles reversed. I loved this more accurate take on the Crusades, which were nothing but a mislabelled invasion of human rights.

At the same time, the Muslims aren’t cast as picture-perfect, and their patriarchal, misogynistic ways are visible in many scenes. But here too, there is a kind of balance. Shaherazade seems to be a part of many discussions with top-rung Muslim leaders, mostly while accompanied by Shahriyar, but sometimes, even on her own strength. This revolutionary feminist portrayal took me a while to adjust to, because I simply couldn’t digest the idea of a young girl being allowed in courts and allowed to speak to men not from her family, and even being present during military strategy discussions. However, the author’s parting note states that the era did have female Muslim leaders, and women were allowed a voice, unlike what current society insists. I will take her word for it for I am sure she has researched more into the topic. 

III. Shaherazade’s Tales:

The framing device lends itself to multiple stories within stories that Shaherazade narrates in a gamut of raconteurial styles. Some of her stories are self-contained. Some have one character having multiple adventures (just like Sinbad does.) At times, the characters in her stories begin narrating a story of their own. These narrated stories cover a variety of genres such as romance, adventure, crime, fantasy and horror. I am not sure if author Jamila Ahmed actually wrote these stories for the book, or if she adapted some of the lesser-known tales from the original for this narrative. Either way, she has done a marvellous job on this aspect. Every story that Shaherazade narrates is a treat.

The only negative of the above is that Shaherazade‘s regular storytelling interrupts the main story: that of her own life. In the original book, this didn’t matter much as we hardly get to know anything about Shahriyar and Shaherazade. Their only purpose there was to be a conduit for the stories. However, as they both get a much meatier role in their retelling, waiting for their story in between the extended secondary tales was a test of my patience.

The Overall Writing Style:

Again, mixed feelings. The world-building is excellent, and I could visualise the gritty deserts as well as the lavish palaces easily through the author’s words. But this doesn’t mean that I could overlook the YA-kind of rambling in Shaherazade’s first person pov and the lack of character development.

This is such a complicated storyline, so to bring all the threads to a neat ending would have been a tough task, especially considering that this is a debut work. But the author manages this mostly well. It departs much from that of the original, but isn’t necessarily bad. In a way, I guess I like this better as it is more realistic, and Shahriyar is not absolved of all his sins. But it is too rushed and feels like a hasty tying up of all that’s left to discuss.

There are many Arabic/Persian words in the writing. As many of these are similar to Urdu/Hindi, I had no problem figuring out the meanings, but Western readers might need a glossary. At times though, there is a literal translation of the regional phrases and this sounds quite funny in English. For instance, “mere kaleje ka tukda” literally means “a piece of my liver” but is an idiom indicating someone dear. So to see one character call another “Oh my liver” made me burst into chuckles. It just doesn’t work in English!

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 16 hrs 13 minutes, is narrated by Sulin Hasso. Her narration is quite brilliant. When Shaherazade’s stories begin, Hasso’s voice also changes pitch to a greater oratory style. I loved her performance.

That said, keep in mind what I told you about the story structure. This book has Shaherazade’s personal story where she also has a tendency to go into her imagination and take a saunter there, as well as the local social and political upheavals in addition to many of her narrated stories, some of which are spread over several narrative sessions interspersed within her personal life story, and some of which contain sub-stories narrated by the characters in Shaherazade’s tales. If simply reading this sentence made your head reel in confusion, stick to reading the book. I’d recommend the audio version only to those attuned to hearing complicated multi-track stories on audio.

All in all, this is an ambitious debut, and it meets several of the high standards it sets. But it would have worked better for me had the characters been more layered. While I have mentioned that the writing style is somewhat YA, do note that this is by no means a YA book and gets quite gory at times, just as the original did.

Recommended but not to everyone and not with enthusiasm. As a character-oriented story, the novel takes its time to progress. So if you are looking for quick thrills and surprising twists, this isn’t for you. But if you want to try an unusual kind of historical fiction, and set in a location you normally read only hackneyed things about courtesy the global media, this is a good one to try. It pays a nice modernised homage to one of the earliest folktale anthologies ever and also reminds us of how culturally rich the Islamic world once was; this attempt deserves praise.

I do think this would work better for Western readers who aren't much aware of the original as they wouldn't fall in the same comparison trap as I did. 

My thanks to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company for the DRC, and Macmillan Audio for the ALC of “Every Rising Sun”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.