A worthy winner of the very first JCB Prize for Literature, this transcendent Malayalam novel, translated into English by Shahnaz Habib, is set in an unnamed city in the Gulf in the throes of a revolution. Told through the eyes of Sameera, a young Pakistani woman who works as a radio jockey, the novel skilfully blends fact and fiction, and eschews lyricism for direct but captivating prose that probes the heart of political and personal discontent. With a keen eye for detail, Benyamin recreates the minutiae of a world in flux, while unraveling the aspirations and concerns of a young woman struggling with her own identity in homes – the country she has migrated to as well as the family she was born into – that no longer feel like her own.