Shubeik Lubeik

Cairo, in an alternate version where wishes are sold and genies are part of daily trade. Three wishes bought from an unassuming kiosk tie together three people: Aziza, Nour and Shokry. Each of them has to decide what a wish is for, and what it costs to use one.

Aziza has known hardship since she was young. After her husband dies, she manages to get hold of a wish, then has to push against bureaucracy and inequality for the right to have it and to make it.

Nour is a privileged college student who hides a struggle with depression, and must choose whether to wish that depression away and then work out how. Shokry holds firm religious convictions, and they are tested when he tries to help a friend who does not want to use their wish.

This is a graphic novel written and drawn by Deena Mohamed, built from three linked stories. The title is an Arabic fairy tale rhyme meaning a wish is granted on command. The tone mixes humor with sharp social observation, and the fantasy is playful: talking donkeys, dragons, and cars that magically skip traffic.

Beneath the fantasy, the characters face a familiar problem, which is how to make the thing they want most actually happen. The stories move between hardship, hope and hard choices. The book won the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.