Gina Wilkinson’s “When the Apricots Bloom” Features Women Under Saddam Hussein’s Tyrannical Rule
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In this episode 195, guest hosted by award-winning author Carrie Knowles, we visit with Gina Wilkinson, award-winning journalist, foreign correspondent and documentary filmmaker, whose debut novel is “When the Apricots Bloom.”
Inspired by her own experiences while stationed in Baghdad during Saddam Hussein’s rule, former foreign correspondent Gina Wilkinson’s evocative debut is told through the eyes of three very different women in Iraq at the turn of the millennium. A secretary, an artist and a diplomat’s wife, each must confront the complexities of trust, friendship, and motherhood under the rule of a dictator and his ruthless secret police.
Susan Wiggs, # 1 New York Times bestselling author, calls the book “A deeply involving and important novel by a master storyteller. Gina Wilkinson highlights the humanity at the center of a brutal conflict. She brings her lived experience to every page of this harrowing, dramatic, and ultimately hopeful book.”
Gina says that through her two decades of living in hotspots across the globe, she’s found that “while we might pray in a certain way, cover our hair or not, bake our bread flat or leavened, at heart we all want the same things—safety, peace, love. We share far more in common than that which divides us.”
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About the Author:
Gina Wilkinson is an award-winning journalist, author, former foreign correspondent, and documentary maker who’s reported from some of the world’s most intriguing and perilous places for the BBC, NPR, ABC, and other renowned public broadcasters.
During two decades living and working in hotspots across the globe, she spent more than a year in Baghdad under Saddam Hussein. At that time, Iraq was virtually sealed off from the outside world, and Gina lived under tight surveillance. One of her closest Iraqi friends even worked as a secret police informant, reporting on her every move.
Gina now works in international development, supporting efforts to end poverty in the developing world. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Additional Praise for the Book
“In Wilkinson’s vivid debut, set in early 2000s Baghdad, secrets and lies mingle as easily as the scent of apricot blossoms and nargilah smoke…Wilkinson weaves in the miasma of fear and distrust that characterized Hussein’s regime with convincing detail…Richly drawn characters and high-stakes plot.”
– Publishers Weekly
“Gina Wilkinson’s breathtaking novel explores the plight of ordinary people who must flee their country to survive, as three women living under the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein and his brutal secret police risk their lives to protect themselves and their children. Riveting and profound! I adored this book!”
– Ellen Marie Wiseman, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Collector
“Gina Wilkinson has crafted a dramatic, stunning novel about friendship and loyalty and the secrets we keep. A gripping story of three very different women caught up in a tangle of obsession, survival and lies, and the risks they will take simply to survive. When imminent war threatens everything they hold dear, they must decide if secrets and friendships are worth the risks they have taken. Set against the dusty villages and crowded cities of Iraq, the intrigue and complexities of a land so far away are brought to vivid life by the author’s dazzling prose. When the Apricots Bloom is a story that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.”
– Roberta Gately, author of Lipstick in Afghanistan
“Riveting from beginning to end. I loved the characters and their strength and perseverance. A great read!”
—Stephanie Crowe, Page & Palette
“Wilkinson’s…distinctive perspective is especially compelling when she contrasts the lives of the two Iraqi women—estranged friends Huda and Rani—with that of Ally, the Australian diplomat’s wife who unwittingly brings them together…through their bravery and determination all three women are able to write new endings for their stories.”
—Margo Grimm Eule, East City Bookshop
“Marvelous…mesmerizing. It was a book I couldn’t put down. It has stayed with me. All I can say is ‘WOW—read it. You won’t be disappointed.’”
—Virginia Holsten, Vinton Public Library (Vinton, IA)
“Reading this novel, I felt the warmth of the sun and tasted the sweetness of the lime tea. The intricately woven relationship between these characters and the expert pacing had me at the edge of my seat, turning the pages as fast as possible all the while wanting to savor every sentence, and even going back to reread a particularly beautiful passage.”
– Kaitlin Smith, Copperfield’s Books (Healdsburg, CA)
About Guest Host Carrie Knowles
Carrie Knowles has published dozens of short stories and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, and four novels: Lillian’s Garden (Roundfire Books, 2013), Ashoan’s Rug (Roundfire Books, 2013), A Garden Wall in Provence (Owl Canyon Press, 2017), The Inevitable Past (Owl Canyon Press, 2020), a collection of short fiction, Black Tie Optional: 17 Stories (Owl Canyon Press, 2019) and a writing workbook, A Self-Guided Workbook and Gentle Tour on Learning How to Write Stories from Start-to-Finish (Owl Canyon Press, 2020). Her non-fiction memoir about her family’s struggles with their mother’s Alzheimer’s, The Last Childhood: A Family Story of Alzheimer’s, initially published by Three Rivers Press, was recently revised, updated and reissued through Amazon.
Carrie was named the Piedmont Laureate for Short Fiction in 2014. Her short stories have won more than 25 awards, including the Village Advocate Fiction Contest, the Blumenthal Writers & Readers Series, the North Carolina Writer’s Network Fiction Syndication and Glimmer Train’s Very Short Fiction Competition. She has been named a finalist in Glimmer Train competitions six times and was also a finalist in the Doris Betts Fiction Contest and received an honorable mention in the National Literary Awards.
Listen to her Charlotte Readers Podcast episode HERE.
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