The Jinn Daughter

Nadine is a hakawati jinn and she has one job: telling the stories of the dead. She rises every morning to gather pomegranate seeds--the souls of those who have died--that have fallen during the night. With her daughter Layala at her side, she eats the seeds, tells their stories, and passes the departed through the final gate of death.

But when the seeds stop falling, Nadine knows something is terribly wrong. All her worst fears are confirmed when she is visited by Death herself, Kamuna who rules the underworld, to reveal her desire for a replacement: it is Layala she wants.

Nadine will do anything to keep her daughter safe, but Kamuna too has little patience and a ruthless drive to get what she has come for. Layala's fate, meanwhile, hangs in the balance.

Rooted in Middle Eastern mythology, Rania Hanna deftly weaves subtle, yet breathtaking, magic through this vivid and compelling story that has at its heart the universal human desire to, somehow, outmaneuver death.