From 'the most important African novelist to emerge in the past twenty-five years' (New York Review of Books) comes a novel set in Somalia and Kenya about family, freedom and loyalty

When Bella, an internationally known fashion photographer, dazzling and aloof, is forced to return to Nairobi to care for her teenage niece and nephew, she feels an unfamiliar surge of protectiveness and responsibility. But when their mother unexpectedly resurfaces, reasserting her maternal rights and bringing with her a gale of chaos and confusion that mirrors the deepening political instability in the region, Bella must decide whether she can ? or must ? come to their rescue.

Nuruddin Farah is the author of eleven novels which have been translated into more than twenty languages and have won numerous awards. Born in Baidoa, Somalia, he lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he is Distinguished Professor of Literature at Bard College.