The Jinn Daughter is a beautiful ode to motherhood

💡When perusing the shelves of a bookstore and coming across a novel with the title The Jinn Daughter, it’s natural to expect that you’re about to acquaint yourself with a read that delves into all things supernatural. Imagine our surprise upon discovering that the novel was anything but.

Nadine is a Hakwati Jinn — a jinn aiding lost souls into the afterlife by telling their stories. She lives alone with her daughter, Layala, and her days have fallen into monotony: gathering pomegranate seeds representing souls, consuming them — and in doing so, learning their stories and telling them — and setting them on their path. Nadine, however, is hiding secrets from her daughter, who in turn has begun seeking the companionship of a dangerous being.

The family’s life is then upended when death herself manifests at their door, demanding that Layala — a half-Jinn in whom she senses tremendous power — takes up her mantle. This, naturally, means that Layala would have to die. Over the course of 276 pages, Syrian-American author Rania Hanna explores life, death, and motherhood, asking: how far would a mother go to save her child?

A work of Middle Eastern mythology and folklore, The Jinn Daughter is a kaleidoscope of tales as old as time — borrowing elements from several cultures, including the Greek story of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, as well as that of Orpheus and Eurydice.

The novel proudly boasts its Arabic influences, with characters familiar in both name and disposition. Further tapping into the folklorism of it all, the novel features a slew of other stories — gathered from the souls of the dead — that supplement and strengthen the narrative, offering readers an intermission from the main chain of events.

For a debut novel, Hanna has set quite the bar for herself. Despite being a full-length novel, it’s one that proves difficult to put down. Hanna’s words flow naturally and beautifully, and despite the melancholic premise, it’s a surprisingly light read — yet one that delivers an emotional uppercut when you least expect it.

WHERE TO GET IT- You can find the paperback version at AUC bookstores, and get the ebook on Amazon.