Escaping her stifling experience in an archaic Portuguese village, Aisha strikes out for Paris, where she finds employment as a nanny, begins courses at the Sorbonne and falls into an affair with her employer. But as she settles into her glittering new life, guilt about abandoning the twin brother she had always protected bites deeply, prompting her to bring him to join her.
Before long Aisha realises that it is too late – their estrangement has gone too far. José, more vulnerable than ever, falls in with a charismatic Muslim sheikh, who soon brings him to Islam and to a deadly form of enlightenment. And so Aisha embarks on her own journey, a quest for self-discovery that takes her to the crossing point between Muslim and Christian worlds, and transforms her to her very being.
Lucy Wadham’s breakout novel is an engrossing tale of love and redemption which impels us to examine the truths that unite us all.
