While a bit protracted at times, I appreciated these candid reflections. The conflict and guilt Eve feels as a young woman who enjoys sex but despises the situation she’s been forced into is described as only one who has been there can. She describes the isolation, the boredom, the repetition of her days, and the relationships with her husband’s family. While she is adept at sharing its horrors, Ayoub also provides an honest portrayal of the daily life of a young girl forced to marry. She constantly schemes for ways to escape the situation and begs for a divorce, all to no avail. She asks to return to Britain, or at the very least to a more urban center of Yemen or to Saudi Arabia. Throughout her entire marriage, Eve demands to be free. But while our heroine surrenders to her new (temporary) life, she never agrees to it or stops fighting for her freedom.

The circumstances she endures are heartbreaking and infuriating: rape, abuse from her father and in-laws, losing her right to education and autonomy. We follow Eve’s story throughout the next 15+ years. From clothes, to traditions, to smells and sounds, the author’s descriptions of life in Yemen are - frighteningly at times - brought to life. From the start of the book, the reader experiences Ayoub’s talent for description and detail.

The book opens with the terrifying marriage scene with Eve being dragged through the process, begging for it not to happen. Worse yet, he forces Eve to marry a man much older than her. Her father takes the family on what he said would be a brief visit to Yemen, the family’s country of origin, but the truth is that he intended for the family to stay. The story is terrifying, infuriating - and that of Ayoub herself.Įve, a schoolgirl in the UK, is extremely intelligent, has plans to attend university, and is focused on a bright future. Hawaa Ayoub’s chilling debut novel centers on 14-year-old Eve who, after being taken from her home to remote Yemen under the pretense of a temporary visit, is forced into marrying a man over ten years older than her.

When a Bulbul Sings by Hawaa Ayoub