When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson
A story about friendship, loyalty, family, and freedom set in Baghdad. The characters felt alive and real. Despite the differences in my own background and upbringing, the author brought these characters to life. I found myself transported to another world. The busy and chaotic markets, the smells of the food and spiced air, the call to prayer. I enjoyed the descriptive scene setting.
The three characters have so much depth. The stories of Huda, Raina, and Ally intersect so beautifully. The hardworking woman, originally from the local village, who has lost her brothers and her closest friend and is forced to become an informant in order to protect her son. The struggling aristocrat who floats in upper circles and the art world while trying to pay the bills and keep her daughter safe. The naïve, yet endearing expat who wants to understand her mother’s story and who ends up entwining her own story with that of the others in her search for answers. All three living under a controlling and invasive regime with their safety and that of their children is at risk. There is an underlying theme of threat and violence and parts of this book were truly suspenseful and unsettling while remaining realistic.
The novel poses some thoughtful questions: What is friendship? How do we define loyalty? How far would you go for those that you love? What does freedom mean? What would you do if in similar circumstances? How would you handle these life-altering decisions?
After reading the novel, I learned it was largely based on the authors own experiences living as a dependent spouse in Iraq in the early 2000’s. Based on her own dealings with informants, with the regime and her own relationships and search for identity, she used this novel and creative storytelling to think through and deal with many of these questions that she had for herself. I’m grateful she chose to explore her trauma with writing because I loved this novel. She confronts our own sense of friendship and freedom and brings to life the very real struggles of others.