A01=Reem Gaafar
Author_Reem Gaafar
Category=FBA
civil war
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
equality
Islam
Khartoum
modern fiction
Nile
North Africa
postcolonial literature
sorcery
South Sudan
Sudan
suspicion
village
women's lives
women’s lives
Product details
- ISBN 9781849250900
- Weight: 270g
- Dimensions: 129 x 192mm
- Publication Date: 27 Mar 2025
- Publisher: Saqi Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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A small farming village in North Sudan wakes up one morning to the news that a little boy has drowned. Soon after, the animals die of a mysterious illness and the date gardens catch fire and burn to the ground. The villagers whisper of a sorceress who dwells at the foot of the mountains. It is the dry season. The men have places to go, the women have work to do, the children play at the place where the river runs over its own banks. Sixteen-year-old Fatima yearns to leave the village for Khartoum.
In Khartoum, a single mother makes her way in a world that wants to keep girls and women back. As civil war swells, the political intrudes into the personal and her position in the capital becomes untenable. She must return to the village.
A Mouth Full of Salt uncovers a country on the brink of seismic change as its women decide for themselves which traditions are fit for purpose – and which prophecies it’s time to rewrite.
Reem Gaafar is a writer, physician and filmmaker based in Canada. Her writing has appeared in African Arguments, African Feminism, Teakisi Magazine, Andariya and 500 Words Magazine, among others. Her short story ‘Light of the Desert’ was published in I Know Two Sudans (Gipping Press UK, 2014). Her short story ‘Finding Descartes’ was published in Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices (HarperVia, 2023). A Mouth Full of Salt is her debut novel and Winner of the Island Prize 2023.
