Fatima’s Room: A Novel Set in Khartoum, Sudan

Fatima’s Room is a novel set in Khartoum. Fatima is a young woman accused of an unimaginable crime. She is confined to her room while her uncles will decide her fate. Fatima fills the hot and worrisome days of waiting, by writing in her journal. She remembers the time before her imprisonment, and imagines what the future might be. All the while family members come and go, interrupting her reflection with various schemes: to reconcile–or escape. Nick Barron, Author and reviewer at www.nicolasbarron.com says, Fatima’s Room is an insightful book by someone who lived and worked for years with girls in Sudan. Gray does a wonderful job flipping between past and present to bring us up to speed while advancing the story. This story, of universal impact, is replicated with varying details across the globe. Charlotte S. Gray writes in the epilogue: The story of Fatima comes from one of my students, whose name was not Fatima. She had told me about her unhappy home life, where the girls functioned as domestics and were denied recognition as individual persons. Their father would shout at them, I will kill you if you don’t come straight home from school. I will kill you if…this. If…that. What if SHE killed HIM? That story has never been told. A daughter who kills her father is not possible. Her husband, yes. Her children, yes. But her father? No. Telling this story appealed to me because it symbolizes the ultimate rebellion against patriarchal suppression.