Virgins of Paradise

“A master storyteller. She never fails to leave the reader enthralled.”
—Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, author of A Woman of Independent Means

From master storyteller Barbara Wood comes a magnificent saga about two sisters from a rich, aristocratic Egyptian family who come of age in postwar Cairo.

Inside a beautiful mansion on Virgins of Paradise Street in post–World War II Cairo, Jasmine and Camelia Rasheed grow to womanhood under the watchful eyes of their grandmother and the other women of the prominent Rasheed family. Despite the glamour and elegance of the city, women still wear the veil and live in harems. But as Egypt begins to change, so do Jasmine and Camelia.

Rebelling against a society in which the suppression of women is assumed, Jasmine and Camelia embark on turbulent personal and professional voyages of discovery. Cast out of the family, Jasmine travels to America to become a doctor while Camelia sets out to become one of the foremost beledi dancers in the Middle East.

Sensuous, spicy, and romantic, Virgins of Paradise is a spellbinding novel set in an exotic and erotic culture. Brilliantly portraying two sisters’ search for identity amidst historic change, Wood also conveys a portrait of an ancient nation emerging into the modern era while mired in superstition, magic, and mythology.