A furious and beautiful book from an internationally bestselling author of formidable standing - on sex and power, persecution and resistance

'A thrilling, defiant novel' FATIMA BHUTTO 'A masterpiece' MARC LAMONT HILL 'Wonderful ... Shines a ray of hope into some very dark places' MICHAEL PALIN 'A fearless work of imagination' AHDAF SOUEIF Winner of the Palestine Book Award Nahr has been confined to the Cube: nine square metres of glossy grey cinderblock, devoid of time, its patterns of light and dark nothing to do with day and night. Journalists visit her, but get nowhere; because Nahr is not going to share her story with them. The world outside calls Nahr a terrorist, and a whore; some might call her a revolutionary, or a hero. But the truth is, Nahr has always been many things, and had many names. She was a girl who learned, early and painfully, that when you are a second class citizen love is a kind of desperation; she learned, above all else, to survive. She was a girl who went to Palestine in the wrong shoes, and without looking for it found what she had always lacked in the basement of a battered beauty parlour: purpose, politics, friends. She found a dark-eyed man called Bilal, who taught her to resist; who tried to save her when it was already too late. Nahr sits in the Cube, and tells her story to Bilal. Bilal, who isn’t there; Bilal, who may not even be alive, but who is her only reason to get out.

"Abulhawa’s novel is a love story ... She elegantly crafts a world where the tension between desire and survival is laid bare" - New Yorker

"A powerful and subversive story of trauma and survival for fans of My Sister, The Serial Killer and Her Body and Other Parties" - The Millions

"The writer's pain - and the beauty of her prose – are very real" - Daily Telegraph

"One of the most thought-provoking books I've read ... written with passion and honesty, and poetry" - Daily Mail

"Abulhawa's writing shines ... Friendship, adolescence, love: ordinary events, offset against extraordinary circumstances, make the story live" - Independent

"In true Thousand and One Nights style, Abulhawa surprises us by continually unfolding new stories … Characters struggle to keep their secrets, but Abulhawa releases them. These are secrets we need to know, secrets that will educate us about ourselves" - Guardian

"A transformative literary grace. Abulhawa’s prose is luminous" - Independent on Sunday

"A fine observer of female kinship ... A powerful read" - Financial Times

"A giant step in the development of Palestinian fiction. The book is a great feat of imagination and storytelling" - Raja Shehadeh

"Readers … are sure to be charmed by Abulhawa’s glittering language and to remember (and love) the characters long after the book has ended" - Washington Independent Review of Books

"Powerful and moving" - Stylist