Geraldine Brooks

​

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

Geraldine Brooks worked as a war correspondent, spending much of her time in the Middle East. This journalistic account tackles a different topic: the lives of Islamic women in various countries of the region. She begins by introducing the Shiite Islamic adage claiming that women possess nine of the ten total parts of sexual desire, used as a justification for repression. Brooks speaks with women from various life circumstances, from different cultures and countries, and she unpacks the ways that they adapt to, adhere to, and challenge expectations of women in their cultures. She depicts both positive and negative effects of their various cultures and challenges preconceived notions about Islamic women that are often held in the West.

​

Year of Wonders

This popular fiction novel is especially compelling now that we in the twenty-first century have experienced a pandemic. Journalist-turned-novelist Brooks, inspired by an inscription she saw while traveling through the UK, explores what may have transpired when a village quarantined itself after discovering that it had been struck by the bubonic plague in the 1600s. The story is told from the perspective of Anna, a young wife and mother, who not only survives the plague but also survives the constrictions of her culture.