Dreams of trespass cover

Dreams of trespass

by Mernissi, Fatima.

"I was born in a harem in 1940 in Fez, Morocco..." So begins Fatima Mernissi in this exotic and rich narrative. With a magical tale-spinner's words, this world-renowned scholar, one of the most eloquent voices of feminism in the Muslim world, weaves her own memories with dreams and fantasies of the women who surrounded her in the courtyard of her childhood. It is the magic of recreating a world of one's own, navigating beyond the frontiers, that Mernissi describes with great wit and color. In a book as evocative as anything found in A Thousand and One Nights, she writes of the politics of seduction and the harem as metaphor. Peopled with marvelous, wise, and funny women - all individualists - Dreams of Trespass is a provocative book whose rewards go far.

More by Mernissi, Fatima.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?