“I had a dream that women, all women, will hold their heads high, that women will work, that in their eyes we will no longer see fear or defeat or humiliation. That women will never again be shackled by society, or by circumstance, or by men. Instead we will see in the eyes of every woman a person fully in control of herself, and mistress of her own destiny.”

Cairo, 1920. In the cafés and literary salons, the great minds of the Arab renaissance meet and share ideas. Among them is May Ziadeh, pioneer of the Arab feminist movement and the great love of Khalil Gibran’s life. Intense and talented, May is celebrated by the greatest writers and thinkers of Cairo’s literary world, who flock to her famous salon. Yet when a series of personal losses leave her vulnerable to plots against her, she is abandoned by those she believed would protect her. Stripped of her everything and imprisoned against her will, May is left fighting for the most basic right: freedom.

In Prisoner of the Levant, Darina Al Joundi offers a moving account of May Ziadeh’s desire for emancipation and enlightenment, and an indictment of a world that does not allow women to be free.

Translated by: Helen Vassallo