A LITERARY NOVEL ABOUT MOTHERHOOD AND DESIRE, TOLD THROUGH THE COMPELLING PERSPECTIVE OF A MOTHER FORCED TO QUESTION EVERYTHING SHE BELIEVES ABOUT HER CHILD AND HERSELF. Maryam Ali, a school chef and widow, finds her son’s bed empty one morning. At her sisters’ insistence, she reports him missing, hoping the police will find him, bring him home. Instead, government officials arrive with news that Dil might be far from London and involved in something unthinkable. As the days pass and the waiting becomes intolerable, Maryam retreats into the past, seeking answers for the present. She finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Julian, the young family liaison officer assigned to her case—a dangerous attraction that forces her to navigate between desire and the knowledge that he represents the very forces that have her son in their sights. As bombs fall on Mosul, Maryam must confront the ultimate question: how does a mother grieve a child who may have done terrible things? A deeply humane, moving, and provocative novel of motherhood, family, desire, and the limits of knowing those we love most.
Author
Mirza Waheed was born and brought up in Kashmir. His debut novel, The Collaborator, was an international bestseller, a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award and the Shakti Bhat Prize, and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. In 2011, Waterstones selected it as part of its big literary debut promotion, ‘Waterstones 11’. It was also a book of the year for The Telegraph, New Statesman, Financial Times, Business Standard, and Telegraph India, among others. His second novel, The Book of Gold Leaves, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim. The Book of Gold Leaves was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016, longlisted for the Folio Prize, and was a finalist for the 2015 Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year (Fiction). Mirza has written for the BBC, the Guardian, Granta, Guernica, Scroll India, Caravan Magazine, Wriers Mosaic, Al Jazeera English, and The New York Times. Waheed’s latest novel Tell Her Everything was nominated for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019 and Tata Literature Live Book of the Year. It won the Hindu Prize for Fiction 2019. Tell Her Everything was published by Melville House in the US and the UK in February 2023.
