This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents herein are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2023 Bothayna Al-Essa

Translation copyright © 2024 Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain

First published as by Takween Publishing

House (Kuwait) and ASP Arabic (Beirut), 2019

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Restless Books and the R colophon are registered trademarks of Restless Books, Inc.

First Restless Books paperback edition April 2024

Paperback ISBN: 9781632063342

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023945244

Quotations from Zorba the Greek reprinted from Nikos Kazantzakis, trans.

Carl Wildman, Zorba the Greek (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996)

Quotations from 1984 reprinted from George Orwell,

1984 (Boston: Mariner Books Classics, 2017)

Permission to paraphrase from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury granted by Don

Congdon Associates Inc., on behalf of Ray Bradbury Literary Works LLC

This book is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This book is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cover design by Joy Richu

Interior illustrations by Mohammed Al Mohanna

Set in Garibaldi by Tetragon, London

Printed in the United States

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