Every Rising Sun

"Jamila Ahmed’s well-crafted debut is a revisionist retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, foregrounding Scheherazade in a real historical period and even allowing her a different ending. It’s one thing to boldly take on this much-debated, well-known literary classic. To then turn its conventional – and, let’s be honest, tired – tropes upside down and inside out is a literary feat deserving of our recognition and respect. Ahmed’s Scheherazade subverts the patriarchal codes of her time, wielding stories as beautifully forged weapons to fashion her own path. Following her pioneering journey, we rediscover the many gemlike truths and pleasures of those quintessential stories."