When the Apricots Bloom

When the Apricots Bloom is a historical fiction novel by Gina Wilkinson that takes place in the early 2000s in Iraq. Set primarily in Baghdad, the novel outlines a narrative drawn from Wilkinson’s own experiences in Iraq during that time frame and focuses on the intertwining lives and actions of three women: Huda, Rania, and Ally. The women’s struggles with secrets, betrayals, and threats from each other and the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein form the plot’s central focus. Huda, a secretary in the Australian embassy, is the sole provider for her family after her husband, Abdul Amir, loses his job due to foreign sanctions. Ally is the wife of the Australian deputy ambassador, Tom, who is also Huda’s boss. Rania runs an art gallery and was formerly one of Huda’s best friends growing up, although the two are now estranged. The three women’s lives collide when Ally tries to investigate her mother’s time in Baghdad in the 1970s and when Huda and Rania struggle to protect their children and themselves from Saddam’s secret police, the dangerous mukhabarat.

When the Apricots Bloom is an international bestseller that has received praise from The New York Times and Publisher’s Weekly. The novel was also selected as BuzzFeed’s Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Release, chosen for the Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books Selection, and included as a Target Book Club Pick.

This guide refers to the 2021 paperback edition of When the Apricots Bloom, published by Kensington Books, which includes both the Author’s Note and a Reading Group Guide.

Content Warning: This novel contains multiple instances and discussions of violence, sexual assault, discrimination, and harassment.

Plot Summary

The novel opens with a short prologue detailing Rania and Huda’s blood oath in which the two young women prick their thumbs and agree to be friends forever. Moving forward to the early 2000s, Huda is now married to Abdul Amir, with whom she has a son named Khalid. Foreign intervention has destroyed Iraq’s economy, and Abdul Amir is unemployed. Huda is a secretary for the Australian embassy in Baghdad and works for Tom Wilson, the deputy ambassador. Because of Huda’s connection to the embassy, she is visited and threatened by Saddam Hussein’s secret police, the mukhabarat, who want her to befriend Tom’s wife, Ally.

Ally is in Iraq under the pretense of being a housewife, although she was a journalist in Australia. Her true agenda in Iraq is to investigate the past activities of her mother, Bridget, who spent some time in Baghdad in the 1970s. Ally gets along well with Huda but does not feel safe in Baghdad. The mukhabarat suggest to Huda that Abdul Amir become Ally’s driver to make her feel safe. Because Abdul Amir feels emasculated by Huda’s role as the primary provider for the family, he takes the job as Ally’s driver.

Ally investigates the hospital where Bridget worked in the 1970s, but none of the nurses are willing to talk to her. Huda and Ally go to Rania’s gallery, but the childhood friends are uncomfortable around each other. Rania was married, but her husband passed away, and her daughter, Hanan, now lives in Basra. Other diplomats at the art gallery discuss the atrocities of Saddam Hussein’s government while simultaneously cautioning against such discussions, for to speak against the government is to risk imprisonment or death.

The mukhabarat threaten to put Huda’s son Khalid in the Lions Club, a youth organization that prepares boys to join the fedayeen death squad. Huda decides that she must get Khalid out of Iraq and visits Rania to obtain a passport for her son, asserting that Rania must still have ties to the opposition movement from years earlier. Huda threatens to tell the mukhabarat that Rania is fostering an insurrection unless Rania agrees to help her. This prompts Rania to make the same threat to her old friend, Basil, in pursuit of the passport. Rania and Huda then meet with Kareem and a cleric (members of the opposition contacted by Basil) to make a deal for Khalid’s passport. Rania receives a visit from Malik, an officer in the Ministry of Culture, who threatens to take her daughter, and she decides to get Hanan out of Iraq.

Ally meets with the artist Miriam Pachachi and finds out that one of the nurses in a picture she has, Yusra, knew her mother. Miriam also reveals that both Bridget and Yusra were members of the communist party in the 1970s. Finding evidence of an intrusion into her home, Ally becomes increasingly paranoid about government surveillance. Huda and Ally investigate Yusra, and Huda finds out that Yusra was killed for being a traitor.

Huda and Rania reconcile the misunderstandings in their past, and the two resolve to forego passports entirely and hire smugglers to get both Khalid and Hanan safely out of the country. Rania reveals that she was briefly romantically involved with Huda’s brother Mustafa just before the rebellion, and explains how that relationship caused Rania’s father, the sheikh, to refuse to save Huda’s brothers out of a misguided sense of offended honor.

Huda discovers that Ally is a journalist, and tensions rise between Huda and Abdul Amir as he accuses Huda of emasculating him with her independence and her job. Rania runs into Miriam, who tells Rania that Ally is an American. Because Huda and Rania cannot find a trustworthy smuggler for their children, they initially devise a plan to betray Ally to Kareem and the cleric to obtain passports for Khalid and Hanan. Instead, Huda and Rania confront Ally, and the three plan to drive the children, Ally, and Huda across the border into Jordan. Huda reveals to Ally that she is an informant, and tells her that Yusra was killed because Bridget told a friend (who was also an informant) about Yusra’s activity in the communist party.

Ally, Huda, Hanan, and Khalid make the trek across the desert to Jordan. Khalid blames Huda for all their family problems, and Ally consistently thinks about turning back. The group is intercepted by the mukhabarat, who threaten them. Although Huda fends them off, Khalid shoots and kills a member of the mukhabarat. The group makes it to Jordan safely and Hanan is sent on to London. Months later, Rania joins them with plans to meet Hanan in London, while Huda and Khalid adjust to their new lives.