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New York Times Best Historical Fiction of 2025
A finalist for the 2021 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, a compelling saga of two families that illuminates the lives of women in modern Tunisia
Tunisia, 1930s. Against the backdrop of a country in turmoil, in search of its identity, the lives and destinies of the members of two important upper-class families of Tunis intertwine: the Ennaifer family, with a rigidly conservative and patriarchal mentality, and the Rassaa, open-minded and progressive.
One terrible night in December 1935, the destiny of both families changes forever when Zbaida Ali Rassaa, the young wife of Mohsen Ennaifer, is accused of having had a clandestine love affair with Tahar Haddad, an intellectual of humble origins known for his union activism and support for women’s rights. The events of that fateful night are told by eleven different narrators, members of the two families, who recall them in different historical moments, from the 1940s to the present day. The result is a complex mosaic of secrets, memories, accusations, regrets, and emotions, taking the reader on an exciting journey through the stories of individuals caught up in the upheavals of history.
“Amira Ghenim’s sweeping, multigenerational historical novel is not just a fictionalized version of his life, but a kaleidoscopic portrait of Tunisian history, from colonial rule to the Nazi occupation to the country’s independence and the political struggles that followed.”—May-lee Chai, The New York Times Book Review
★ “Ghenim keeps the reader guessing, as she does her characters, with passion and anguish, disclosing devastating secrets of lives maliciously destroyed... A stirring, engrossing tale.”—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“Ghenim offers an enthralling saga of two upper-class families linked by marriage and roiled by an explosive letter in 1935 Tunis.... Ghenim provides a rich backdrop with descriptions of Tunis’s culinary traditions and Tunisia’s fight for independence. Readers will be transported.”—Publishers Weekly
“One of the best Tunisian novels of recent years... Amira Ghenim masterfully weaves suspense throughout a family saga that grips the reader until the very last page.”—Internazionale
“An enthralling exploration of the complexities of Tunisian society, and a gripping family saga that captures the spirit of a nation poised between tradition and modernity.”—Corriere della Sera
“A mesmerizing kaleidoscope of a novel.”—la Repubblica