A beautiful, profound book. Alharthi's writing (and Booth's translation) is so moving - there is life breathed into the tiniest of details and simplest of words, which makes their significance so much more powerful. It really is the minutiae of this book that hits me deeply. I really enjoyed the fragmented/non-linear narrative style; it intertwined Zuhour and Bint Amir's lives (along with everyone else's) in a very engaging way. I'm not typically the biggest fan of "character study" novels; there were moments where I found myself wishing for something more, but that's an issue of personal taste, not of quality. 

This book makes me think of all my aunties like Bint Amir. Alharthi truly knows how to capture the nuances of longing, of grief, of the human condition.