The UK book cover for Fatin Abbas’ debut novel Ghost Season is out and it is so stunning that you will not be able to take your eyes off of it. We are so excited to share this cover reveal of Abbas’ debut, which will be published by Jacaranda Books in the UK this July .

The book jacket depicts shades of pink, orange, green, and red, all bleeding into each other. The colors resemble a watercolor painting and feature a blurry background of map lines, in keeping with the border conflict storyline of the novel. The cover designer did a great job capturing the themes of Abbas’ brilliant storytelling and we cannot wait for the release of the UK edition in July.

The cover was designed by the California-based designer Christina Schweighardt. The Jacaranda Books team wanted to bring in elements of a hazy geography to reinforce the liminality of some of the characters’ experiences in the book, while also referencing the processes of mapping that are present in the book.

They added, “We wanted the cover to evoke a feeling of searching and finding, as many of the characters are on their own journeys to find the people they love.”

Ghost Season is set in the Sudanese border and features five scintillating characters caught in a mysterious dilemma. When a burnt corpse appears in a small Sudanese border town, trouble begins to brew for the five strangers on the NGO compound.

Read the full synopsis below:

South Sudanese translator William connects the corpse to the sudden disappearance of cook Layla, a northern nomad with whom he’s fallen in love. Meanwhile, Sudanese American filmmaker Dena struggles to connect to her unfamiliar homeland, and white midwestern aid worker Alex finds his plans thwarted by a changing climate and looming civil war. Dancing between the adults is Mustafa, a clever, endearing twelve-year-old, whose schemes to rise out of poverty set off cataclysmic events on the compound.

Amid the paradoxes of identity, art, humanitarian aid, and a territory riven by conflict, William, Layla, Dena, Alex, and Mustafa must forge bonds stronger than blood or identity. Weaving a sweeping history of the breakup of Sudan into the lives of these captivating characters, Fatin Abbas explores the porous and perilous nature of borders―whether they be national, ethnic, or religious―and the profound consequences for those who cross them.

The book was published in the US on January 10 by W.W. Norton. Read an excerpt of the novel here.

Preorder the UK edition of Ghost Season here!