This is a refugee story of a young girl and her family forced out of Syria in 2011 from the violent civil wars. There’s also a dual timeline that’s half medieval historical fiction/fairy tale fabel, but I found that storyline something I had to get through to read the main text. Not surprising given the subject matter, but it was a pretty depressing story. Every step of the way was another terrible event or injustice or roadblock. Joukhadar’s language is so lush and poetic, and even when the plot made me sad, their writing was a wonder to marvel at.