My Name Is Salma

(Paperback)

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Description

As contemporary as today's headlines and as timeless as love and hate - a young Muslim asylum-seeker in England runs from a brother who wants to commit honour killing When Salma becomes pregnant before marriage in her small village in the Levant, her innocent days playing the pipe for her goats are gone for ever. She is swept into prison for her own protection. To the sound of her screams, her newborn baby daughter is snatched away. In the middle of the most English of towns, Exeter, she learns good manners from her landlady, and settles down with an Englishman. But deep in her heart the cries of her baby daughter still echo. When she can bear them no longer, she goes back to her village to find her. It is a journey that will change everything - and nothing. Slipping back and forth between the olive groves of the Levant and the rain-slicked pavements of Exeter, My Name is Salma is a searing portrayal of a woman's courage in the face of insurmountable odds.

Reviews

Fadia Faqir's captivating new novel deals with the timeless themes of unforgiveness, friendship and travel. Exquisitely woven, laced with humour and social awareness, it hums with the futility of erasing the past. * Leila Aboulelah, author of THE MINARET *
This is a beautiful book, written in vivid, tender prose, about creating a new world when you have lost everything that matters. Salma is an unforgettable character, fierce and loving, veering between self-hatred and a sense of her own strength, touching and funny by terms. Now I have finished the book, I miss her
Vividly expresses the horror of lives oppressed by archaic patriarchal honour codes * Financial Times *
Exquisite ... As Salma's life moves toward its inevitable climax, readers will be transfixed * US Library Journal *
Tender and perceptive * Good Housekeeping *

Author Bio

Fadia Faqir is a Jordanian/British writer and defender of human rights, especially women's rights in the Arab world. She is the author of two other novels, Nisanit and Pillars of Salt. In 1990 the University of East Anglia awarded her the first Ph.D in Critical and Creative Writing. Brought up in Amman she now lives with her husband in Durham. For more information please visit www.fadiafaqir.com