Love in the Kingdom of Oil
by Nawal El Saadawi

A woman disappears without a trace. The police commissioner investigating the case enquires: was she of dubious morals, was she the rebellious sort? Nobody understands how a woman could simply walk away, leaving husband and home behind. After all, in the Kingdom of Oil where His Majesty reigns supreme, no woman has ever dared disobey the command of men.

When the woman finally reappears, there is a blurring between the men in her life. In a tangle of dream-like scenarios, she leaves one to become the wife of another, but when she eventually returns to her first husband she finds that he has taken a new wife. She is trapped in a man-made web, unable to escape from a male figure who is always half-asleep and who continually fills urns that she must carry.

Surreal and satirical, Love in the Kingdom of Oil is a startling reflection on the limits of female freedom in a society unable and unwilling to shrug off the multiple faces of patriarchy.