Women in Translation Book Club: Your Wish is My Command

Please note this meeting will be in person at the bookshop. There will be a mixture of in-person and online meetings throughout the year.

The Women In Translation reading group provides a free, friendly and gentle environment in which opinions are shared and new appreciations can be discovered. A place for curious minds and relaxed conversation hosted by poet and translator Annie Rutherford.

For July 2026 the book will meet in person to discuss is the graphic novel Your Wish is My Command by Deena Mohamed, translated by Deena Mohamed

Please support the bookshop & the book club by ordering your books through Lighthouse, Use the code LONG-VICTORIOUS-WIT for bookclubbers 10% off.

The Book:

WINNER OF THE WARWICK PRIZE FOR WOMEN IN TRANSLATION 2023

A brilliantly original debut graphic novel that imagines a fantastical Cairo where wishes really do come true... Your Wish is My Command is the story of three people who are navigating a world where wishes are literally for sale. Mired as they are in bureaucracy and the familiar prejudices of our world, the wishes that are more expensive are more likely to work as intended.

Three wishes sold at an unassuming kiosk in Cairo link Aziza, Nour and Shokry, changing their perspectives as well as their lives. Aziza learned early that life can be hard, but when she loses her husband and manages to procure a wish, she finds herself fighting unreasonable regulations and inequality for the right to have - and make - that wish. Nour is a privileged college student who secretly struggles with depression and must decide whether or not to use their wish to try to 'fix' this depression.

And, finally, Shokry must grapple with his religious convictions as he decides how to help a friend who doesn't want to use their wish. Although their stories are fantastical, each of these people wrestles with the very real challenge of trying to make their most deeply held desires come true.