The Size of a Grape

The Size of a Grape unfolds during Ramadan in 2012 when, at the International Medical Centre in Cairo, 15-year-old Ziyad is found to have a brain tumour 'the size of a grape’. Ziyad’s treatment coincides with the arrival of the former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, who has been transferred to the centre under the order of his judge. Ziyad’s mother is shaken by her son’s illness and it prompts her to review her life and her relationships, only to find they were not as they should have been. The novel describes the state of oppressed women in a patriarchal society, who still possess the strength to confront both themselves and others in order to recover their sense of self-worth and dignity.