It is the dawn of the 1950s and from the bustling streets of Khartoum to cosmopolitan Cairo, the sun is setting on the British Empire. Mahmoud, the head of a powerful Sudanese dynasty and married to two different women, has grand ambitions. But there are tensions between his wives, as one is bound to traditions which confine her to her open-air kitchen, whilst the other is a modern Egyptian woman intent on dividing the household.

Then Nur, Mohmoud’s brilliant son and heir to his business empire suffers a  near-fatal accident, leaving him to face a future in which he cannot marry his beloved cousin or fulfill his father’s ambitions. Moving between Sudan and Egypt,  this is a heart-wrenching portrait of a family in turmoil, a love lost and history in the making.

‘Leila Aboulela has created a story for all the senses, one to be savoured and enjoyed’ Financial Times