Imagine a world where magic is bottled, exported, and put on sale. In Deena Mohamed’s sumptuous graphic novel, three inhabitants of Cairo must be careful what they wish for.
“This tale of motivations and magic fizzes with ideas, but treats its fantastic subject with subtlety and its characters with thoughtful care. It’s about as auspicious a debut as you could wish for.” – Guardian
Imagine a world where magic is bottled, exported, and put on sale. In Deena Mohamed’s sumptuous graphic novel, three inhabitants of Cairo must be careful what they wish for. Examining familiar hierarchies, power, bureaucracy, and the danger of good intentions, Mohamed paints a gorgeous world full of difficult questions.
Following her three protagonists – grieving widow Aziza, depressed college student Nour, and wish-kiosk operator Shokry – Your Wish is My Command is set in the decades following the mass extraction and industrialisation of magic, where first-class wishes are safe, reliable, desirable and third-class wishes just might kill you.
Mohamed will be in conversation with writer and law student Fadilah Salawu.
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Deena Mohamed is an Egyptian comics artist, writer and designer. She began her career with the webcomic Qahera, about a visibly Muslim Egyptian superhero. Her research into the history of Egyptian comics inspired her to create Your Wish is My Command.
Presented in partnership with the Centre for Resistance Studies and the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute, Trinity College Dublin.