Pub Date: 2010-04-27 Pages: 368 Language: English Publisher: HarperCollins US Just when her family should be arranging her marriage. Kathmiya Mahmoud. a young Marsh Arab maiden. is sent from her home in Iraqs idyllic countryside to the unfamiliar city of Basra. where she must survive on her paltry earnings as a servant. Her only asset-her exquisite beauty-brings more peril than peace. Worse. her mother appears to be keeping a secret about her own mysterious past. one that could threaten Kathmiyas destiny forever. In this lost Iraq of the 1940s. a time of rich traditions and converging worlds. Kathmiya meets Shafiq. a Jewish boy whose brotherhood with his Muslim neighbor Omar proves that religion is no barrier to friendship. But in a world where loss of honor is punishable by death. the closeness that grows between Kathmiya and Shafiq becomes dangerous as a doomed love takes ...