First published 2024
Ghazaala and Asiya grow up together like sisters in a small mountain village. When tragedy forces Asiya to leave, Ghazaala loses the most important relationship of her life. Years later, she falls in love with a violinist despite her parents' disapproval. His work with the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra takes them to Muscat, where Ghazaala starts university while managing her duties as a wife. She soon becomes mother to twin boys and forms a close friendship with Harir, who documents their bond in her diary over ten years. Neither woman realizes that Asiya's memory continues to shape both their lives in ways they cannot see. Jokha Alharthi explores how the friendships we form in childhood can define us long after they end, and how we spend our adult lives trying to recreate what we have lost.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Muscat, Oman, Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra
Period: 21st-century
272 pages · Hardcover · Scribner UK