All That I Want to Forget: A Novel
Bothayna Al-Essa
Fatima loves poetry and wants to study French literature both of which are anathema to her strict and conservative much older brother, Saqr. While living under his roof, Fatimas hopes and dreams are scrutinized, mocked, and slowly crushed as she is forced into his narrow vision of the right path.
Then Fatima meets Isam, a poet like her, they email love letters to each other and meet in secret. Saqr, however, has other ideas: she is married off to Faris, a complete stranger. He is not the cruel tyrant her brother was, but still she did not choose him.
Will she escape her past to live the life of love and poetry she craves?
Bestselling and award-winning Kuwaiti female authors debut in English with a translation of her bestselling Arabic novel of a contemporary love story set in the Middle East. 
Fatima, a young woman, who wants to become a poet, is stymied by her older, tyrannical brother who marries her off at the age of 19 to a stranger. 
Tackles subjects of feminism and women's rights in the Gulf and the Arab world with a nuanced and fresh approach without falling into the hackneyed clichés around oppression of Arab women.
