“On December 7, 1935, two wealthy Tunisian families were torn apart when a young wife and mother was accused of adultery. In Tunisian novelist Ghenim’s captivating narrative, translated by Faiza and McNeill, 11 of the characters involved recall an event that has continued to haunt them for decades, revealing in their confessions and testimonies a tangled web of lies, suspicions, and betrayals, as well as a society pervaded by homophobia, classism, antisemitism, and racism. French colonialism sparked social unrest and political upheaval... Ghenim keeps the reader guessing, as she does her characters, with passion and anguish, disclosing devastating secrets of lives maliciously destroyed. A stirring, engrossing tale.”
Read the full starred review in Kirkus Reviews.
