The Poison Tree

Book excerpt: The Poison Tree - planted and grown in Egypt is not a traditional novel; it combines the techniques of blogging, journal-keeping, and formal writing while retaining one binding thought that keeps the story together; poison is the fertile ground that I, and many other Middle Eastern women, was born into; a poisoned culture nurtured my roots with suffocating traditions, taboos, and beliefs; poison runs through my stem. I branched out and my branches carried me far away from the roots and the ground. I questioned the tutoring of my conservative society and green leaves covered my bare branches. My tree bore its fruits; poisoned fruits that were the poison of many who dropped dead next to the solid stubborn tree. This is a book about love, marriage, divorce, sex, dating, virginity, adult dating, religion, shame, taboos, gender wars and fear that grew and blossomed on my poison tree.