Bahraini novelist Fathia Nasser's novel, "The Question Man," published by the Arab Institute for Studies and Publishing. The novelist tackles questions related to women's issues within their local social environment as a starting point for a broader context. However, these pressing questions remain an obstacle, preventing solutions to issues that threaten to distort their feminine identity, disfigure their womanhood, and turn them into mere question marks.

The novel's narrative leans on the perspectives of two women: the narrator and the protagonist, "Rajaa." The former, who undoubtedly represents the author, stands between the latter and the reader. Because the novel is a mixture of conflicting timelines—between past and present, psychological and natural—it can be said that there is an agreement between them to share a truth whose threads the reader gradually uncovers.

Together, the two women raise questions surrounding men, following a path of a neglected but potent culture, like embers under ashes. For this reason, Fathia Nasser did not concern herself with modern narrative techniques but instead portrayed the crisis in which the two women are entangled as a product of these neglected cultural questions. The tension between the two women in reinforcing these questions remains evident throughout the novel.

• Author: Fathia Nasser
• Publisher: The Arab Institute for Studies and Publishing
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Genre: Novel