We have a very exciting event coming up that is a must-attend for African literature fans! Brittle Paper founder and Editor-in-Chief Professor Ainehi Edoro will be speaking with Sudanese author Reem Gaafar about her debut novel, A Mouth Full of Salt, winner of the 2023 Island Prize.

This cozy and stimulating conversation is organized by Saqi Books, publisher of A Mouth Full of Salt. Saqi is a leading independent publisher of trade and academic books on the Middle East and North Africa.

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. Perfect for readers of Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun and Leila Aboulela’s River Spirit, Gaafar’s searing debut is the story of the remarkable ways two women save one other.

One morning, a little boy drowns in a small farming village in North Sudan and soon after, the animals die of a mysterious illness and the date gardens burn to the ground in the dry season. While the villagers whisper of a sorceress who dwells at the foot of the mountains, 16-year-old Fatima yearns to leave the village for Khartoum. Meanwhile, 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 she must return to the village.

Reem Gaafar is a Sudanese writer, physician and filmmaker. Her fiction and non-fiction writing has appeared in African Arguments, African Feminism, Teakisi Magazine and International Health Policies, and in the anthologies I Know Two Sudans, and Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices. She was shortlisted for the Miles Moreland Foundation Scholarship in 2020.

Date: April 18, 2024

Time: 7 PM BST / 1 PM CST / 2 PM EST

Location: Online

Register here.

Don’t miss out on this amazing event and chance to witness a scintillating conversation between Gaafar and Africa’s premier literary brand Brittle Paper. Register ASAP!