Abeer N. Kashmeeri
Historical Women's Fiction Author from Saudi Arabia
Available October 2027
THE
ROSEWATER
BOOKSTORE
A debut novel of book club historical fiction. 1973 Madinah.
Sixteen-year-old Alia Kutbi has learned to survive by staying quiet. But inside her father’s bookstore, among leather bindings, oud smoke, and secret ledgers, her mind belongs entirely to herself.
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The Story
A Sanctuary Worth Fighting For
Alia knows the rules of her world: keep your headscarf tight, your voice low, and your dreams hidden. Her only refuge is her father’s bookstore, a fragrant haven of old paper, rosewater, leather, and oud where she can imagine a life beyond the limits placed around her.
But when her father dies suddenly, the shop and Alia’s future fall into the hands of her uncle. He intends to sell the bookstore and arrange her marriage before she can claim either her inheritance or her independence.
To save the place that raised her, Alia must risk the one thing her world values most: her reputation.
For Readers Who Love
This is a story for readers drawn to richly atmospheric historical fiction, complex family bonds, and young women who fight oppressive systems with intelligence rather than force.
A vivid journey through 1970s Madinah and Cairo
A beloved bookstore filled with secrets, ledgers, and quiet rebellion
A heroine who must become her own rescuer
Female solidarity, forbidden hope, and cultural resilience
A triumphant, book-club-ready story of agency and self-possession
Alia’s World
The world around Alia is changing. Cairo is loud, romantic, and intoxicatingly free. Madinah is watchful, traditional, and bound by reputation.
Between these two worlds, Alia begins to understand that freedom is not something she can wait to be given. It is something she may have to take.
١٩٧٣ ، المدينة المنورة
The Bookstore
MEET ALIA KUTBI
Alia is not a loud rebel. Not at first.
She is observant, bookish, careful, and underestimated. She knows how to read a room, how to study a ledger, and how to survive inside rules designed to keep her small. But when every private path closes, Alia discovers the terrifying power of public refusal.
Her rebellion is not reckless. It is precise. It is costly. And it is hers.
More Than a Shop
The Rosewater Bookstore is not simply her father’s business. It is Alia’s classroom, her refuge, and the first place where her gifts are seen. Hidden inside its ledgers and shelves is the proof that she is capable of more than obedience.
When her uncle threatens to sell it, Alia is not only fighting for property. She is fighting for memory, identity, and the right to build a future in her own name.
A Novel About Quiet Defiance
At its heart, The Rosewater Bookstore explores the hidden ways women endure, protect one another, and carve out spaces of freedom under systems built to silence them.
A Note On the Music
The Voice in the
Next Room
When I was writing The Rosewater Bookstore, I kept coming back to the songs. A novel set in 1973 Madinah and Cairo lives or dies on what was playing in the next room, and for that whole world the voice in the next room was Umm Kulthum.
I can’t reprint her lyrics here. The words to her songs are still under copyright, held by the poets who wrote them and their heirs, and that’s as it should be. What I can do is send you to where they live. Nobuo Mizuno and Tetsuo Nishio gathered the texts of her songs into one edition, translated and free to read, published by the Center for Modern Middle East Studies at the National Museum of Ethnology. I leaned on it often while I worked. If you want somewhere to start, look up Inta ʿUmrī and Alf Leila wa Leila, and let her do the rest.
If you would like to take a moment and listen to the songs themselves, you can find links to each song below:
A Story Made for Conversation
Book Club Guide Coming Soon
With its richly drawn setting, morally complex family relationships, and unforgettable final act of defiance, The Rosewater Bookstore invites the kind of conversation readers carry long after the last page.
What does freedom cost when reputation is everything?
What does Alia inherit from her father that Essam cannot take from her?
What has shaped Alia that allowed her to finally find the value of her voice?
Discover the Story Behind the Bookstore
Historical women's fiction from the heart of Saudi Arabia — stories of resilience, heritage, and the quiet brilliance of women.
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© Copyright 2026. Abeer N. Kashmeeri. All Rights Reserved.