In the historical fiction book, When the Apricots Bloom, by Gina Wilkinson, the theme of convoluting trust is conspicuous as the 2 main characters have to live under merciless authority. Huda and Rania came from families of different wealth as Rania was born into a wealthy family whereas Huda was a village girl. As they became older, they grew apart and went their separate ways as Huda became a secretary of an Australian Embassy while Rania’s family wealth slowly diminished. The main plot of the story is when Huda is forced to become a spy for the mukhabarat - the discrete police that tries to protect Iraq from America. The mukhabarat are blackmailing Huda by threatening to send her son to the fedayeen. Because of this, Huda turned to her long time friend Rania to get a passport for her son to leave Iraq. As Rania has lost her families wealth so has her connections. A sequence of coercing begins to establish as the characters are forcing others of higher authority to help Huda as she is route cause of the blackmailing.
I thought this book was very interesting as I don’t normally read historical fiction books. I agree with the author about why trust is a devious theme shown, as the characters in the book have a chain of betraying that was evident. However, even though the author portrays Huda as unproblematic person it is shown later that she will go to extreme lengths to protect her family. This book affected me as its story line made it entertaining to read. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to others.
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