In a harrowing compilation of true stories charting the fate of women abducted by IS in Iraq, Dunya Mikhail shows how the best of human qualities can persist even in the worst of times. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book.
The provocative title of Dunya Mikhailʹs most recent book – her first work of nonfiction – is markedly different in translation. In Arabic, the book is called Fi Souq al-Sabaya, or In the Sabaya Market. At one point, Mikhail and her co-translator Max Weiss tell us the word sabaya means "sex slave", although that isnʹt quite right. More often, they leave it as "sabaya".
In the U.S. edition, published in March, the bookʹs title has become The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq. When it is published in the UK in August, the title will be The Beekeeper of Sinjar. Both English titles foreground neither the women nor the slave market, but small-town Iraqi beekeeper Abdullah Shrem.