FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2024WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTIONNATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER FOR FICTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PROSE PRIZE 2025LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024FROM THE PULITZER-PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR OF THE RETURN'A brilliant novel about innocence and experience, about friendship, family and exile' COLM TOIBINKhaled and Mustafa meet at university in Edinburgh: two Libyan eighteen-year-olds expecting to return home after their studies. In a moment of recklessness and courage, they travel to London to join a demonstration in front of the Libyan embassy. When government officials open fire on protestors in broad daylight, both friends are wounded, and their lives forever changed.Over the years that follow, Khaled, Mustafa and their friend Hosam, a writer, are bound together by their shared history.