Women with Their Love, Paula Jacques

"Dada Zanouba often says that she wasn't put on this earth just to be a servant to the roumis. When I say the opposite, just to tease her a little, she throws one of those fits of anger from which none of the three Lourias emerge unscathed... Zanouba has a deep aversion to the powerful of the earth. She includes tram conductors, police officers, our doorman who denies her the use of the elevator, and the street thugs who call out to her as she passes: "Hey you, darky, do you run in the wash?" Her aversion equals the hatred she feels for the supreme enemy: the husband. She finds husbands as contemptuous of their wives as most bosses have been towards her. As for whether she speaks from experience... In this two-voice novel - Mara Louria, twelve years old, and Zanouba, her Muslim maid - Paula Jacques tells us a story of initiation into the games of love, war, and sorrow. The story takes place in Cairo in 1956 during the Suez War, which put an end to the Jewish presence in Egypt. With strength and humor, Paula Jacques paints a magnificent portrait of Zanouba the rebel, the woman of the people.