Less than four months out from release date and THE JINN DAUGHTER has been getting good reviews!
If you want your own copy, you can get one here. THE JINN DAUGHTER is releasing April 2, 2024. Add it to your Goodreads and Storygraph.
Early reviews for my debut, THE JINN DAUGHTER, have come in. I’m proud of them.
If you want your own copy, you can get one here. THE JINN DAUGHTER is releasing April 2, 2024. Add it to your Goodreads and Storygraph.
As of today, we are FIVE months away from pub date for THE JINN DAUGHTER, my debut novel.
A stunning debut novel and an impressive feat of storytelling that pulls together mythology, magic, and ancient legend in the gripping story of a mother’s struggle to save her only daughter
Nadine is a jinn tasked with one job: telling the stories of the dead. She rises every morning to gather pomegranate seeds—the souls of the dead—that have fallen during the night. With her daughter Layala at her side, she eats the seeds and tells their stories. Only then can the departed pass 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 Kamuna, Death herself and ruler of the underworld, who reveals her desire for someone to replace her: it is Layala she wants.
Nadine will do whatever it takes to keep her daughter safe, but Kamuna 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.
Some author reviews:
“Lyrical and magical, The Jinn Daughter captivates with its fierce imagination and its visceral prose. Hanna spins a folkloric tale of family bonds and the power that the dead hold over the living. An extraordinary novel that will linger long after the final page!”―Helene Wecker, author of The Golem and the Jinni
“A beautiful, haunting homage to Middle Eastern folklore,The Jinn Daughter is a stirring tale of love, grief, and the depths we’re willing to go to save our loved ones. Hanna’s beautifully drawn, complex characters weave together a story that will find its way into your very bones and leave you wanting more.”―Ehigbor Okosun, author of Forged by Blood
“Hanna seamlessly weaves compelling and complex characters into a lush tapestry of Middle Eastern folklore, creating a tragic, haunting world that is as dark as it is beautiful.” ―Samantha Sotto Yambao, author of Before Ever After
If this sound compelling, be sure to PREORDER your copy!
Be sure to add THE JINN DAUGHTER to your Goodreads and Storygraph!
I’ve been writing short, folkloric-feeling or fairy-tale-ish stories for a book I’m working on. The stories are Arab-inspired, people-centered, and hopefully, tell their own tale, even within the context of the larger story.
This one is called Breekh and features a wife stolen by a jinn from right under her husband’s nose.
Tell me in the comments what you think!
BREEKH
There was a man and a woman, married for years who were wise to believe in the evil eye. They knew spirits that were made of smoke, not flesh, roamed the earth, looking for ways to cause mischief.
The man’s name was Pot, and the woman’s name was Kettle. They both wore small blue beads on their clothes to protect them from the evil eye, which was the magic of the spirits, but could be cast by unwitting humans with ill, or at least, unkind, intention.
One day, the man grew tired of his wife’s talking, and wished her to stay silent. The woman was hurt her husband did not want to listen to her, and felt lonely as she drew water from their deep well.
A jinn by the name of Breekh was passing by the well, invisible to the human eye.
After a while of silence, the woman continued her story, trying to get her husband’s attention. But the husband, who wanted nothing but silence, cursed out at his wife, “Ya nan al Breekh!” he said, “Damn you, Breekh!” And in that moment, the man cast the evil eye on his wife without knowing it. Breekh, the jinn, heard this, and thus he was summoned.
The man did not know why he called out Breekh instead of his wife’s name, but he ignored the thought and sat brooding on why he married this woman in the first place.“It was her beauty,” he thought, “Her beautiful mouth blinded me to the tongue inside it. If I had known I would know no silence, I’d have never married her. What I wouldn’t do for silence.”
What the man and woman didn’t know, though, was that in the jinn language, Breekh meant Kettle.
The jinn stole the wife away from the man, forcing her into a world made of fire and smoke and ash. A world where the earth erupted in plumes of flames, and spewed molten rock on the cities below the fiery mountain.
The jinn locked the woman in the belly of the mountain, leaving her to sweat and her body to shrivel in the heat.
The man cursed himself for his foolishness, and he called upon the old sheikhs, who drew on their powers against the evil eye. And though the woman noticed the blue bead she wore glowing, the spell would not break. Breekh held her captive for years, until Kettle became the molten earth itself. She became the fiery mountain, and that is why the great mountain in the distance is called the Kettle of Fire.
The man lived his days in solitude, but it was not a peaceful one. He was lonely, and missed the sound of his wife’s voice. He cursed himself until his dying breath for giving up the one person who loved him enough to want to talk to him.
Copyright (C) 2020 by Rania Hanna
Reading Between the Dunes 