SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019Expect vibrant vivid and eyeopening descriptions of Middle Eastern life propelled by a tender storyline all in Shafaks haunting beautiful and considered prose Vanity FairIncredibly sensuous and poetic and evocative Pandora SykesRichly uplifting. truly beautiful writing Nicola SturgeonIn the first minute following her death Tequila Leilas consciousness began to ebb slowly and steadily like a tide receding from the shore.For Leila each minute after her death recalls a sensuous memory spiced goat stew sacrificed by her father to celebrate the birth of a yearnedfor son bubbling vats of lemon and sugar to wax womens legs while men are at prayer the cardamom coffee she shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each fading memory brings back the friends she made in her bittersweet life friends who are now desperately trying to find her .